India is the largest user of the groundwater in the world with almost 90% being used for drinking water and almost 60-70% for irrigation. Current statistics also show that nearly 50% of urban water supply comes from groundwater. India is on the threshold of a very serious groundwater crisis, which needs mitigation both in the fields and at the policy corridors of the country.

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The groundwater crisis is embedded at two different levels:

• Groundwater exploitation of aquifers (where groundwater is stored) in different parts of the India.
• Groundwater contamination that find origins, both in geogenic source such as Arsenic and Fluoride along with anthropogenic sources of contamination primarily due to poor disposal of waste and wastewater.

Artificial recharge (also known as aquifer re-injection) is the process of injecting (or recharging) water into the ground in a controlled way, by means of special recharge wells. The water is pumped from the dewatering system and then piped to the recharge location, which may be a considerable distance away, where the water is injected back into the ground. Water may have to the treated prior to recharge, to reduce the risk of clogging of recharge wells.

Artificial recharge of the groundwater can solve the issue substantially but not completely because of very high rate of groundwater exploitation. This method can solve the crisis in two types of the areas.

Areas with high rainfall but the high water runoff due to deforestation or urbanization:

• Cities such as Mumbai and certain areas such as southern part of Tamil Nadu receive high monsoon rainfall but still has low underground water table due to surface runoff of rain water.
• In such areas artificial recharge methods such as “Ditch and Furrow system”, “Stream Augmentation”, “Over irrigation” can be deployed where the rain water is to made spread over land for long period of time so that the water could percolate in to ground.
• “Roof top rain water harvesting” methods can also be deployed specially in metro cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, where the run off occurs due construction of road and buildings which prevent water from percolating into ground.

Areas with low rainfall:

• Certain semi arid areas such as Gujarat and Rajasthan where rainfall is low and ground water is major source during dry period.
• In such areas methods such as “Recharge well, Recharge pit/shaft, Dug well” can be deployed where a pit or well is dug and rainwater is channelized in to it, so that water could percolate in to ground.

Other measures needed for alleviating this situation are

• Reducing electricity subsidies:
  • An analysis of panel data across 370 districts in India found that a reduction in electricity subsidy was correlated with a decrease in groundwater extraction.
  • Most empirical studies are in favour of pricing electricity on the basis of actual consumption. They show that the energy prices at which the farmers start responding to tariff changes in terms of reducing the demand for water and electricity would be socio-economically viable.
• Micro-irrigation:
  • Encouraging farmers to adopt micro-irrigation techniques such as drip irrigation and micro-sprinklers.
  • According to the CWMI report, adopting micro-irrigation techniques can save roughly 20% of the groundwater used annually on irrigation in India.
• Creating awareness:
  • Creating sustainable change would require a bottom-up approach by empowering the local community to become active participants in managing groundwater.
• Proper implementation of initiatives:
  • 12th five-year plan proposed a policy of participatory groundwater management (PGM), which involves a collaborative approach among government departments, researchers, NGOs and community members. The plan involves training community workers to carry out aquifer mapping and implement innovative ways to use groundwater conservatively with the local community.
  • Government has come up with a Rs. 6,000-crore World Bank-aided Atal Bhujal Yojana with community participation to ensure sustained groundwater management in overexploited and ground water-stressed areas in seven States.
  • World Bank’s Water Scarce Cities Initiative seeks to promote an integrated approach to managing water resources and service delivery in water-scarce cities as the basis for building resilience against climate change.
• Crisis can be tackled by restoring and enhancing groundwater recharge areas, stopping polluted water from recharging groundwater, rainwater and roof top harvesting and the restoration of ponds, lakes and other river systems.
• Growing less water-intensive crops in the dry season and transitioning away from irrigation-intensive systems where there is little water.
• In urban areas putting in place an efficient piped supply system has to be top on the agenda of policymakers and planners.
• Successful community-based groundwater management experiences from different states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan must also be studied. Collaboration, combination of ideas and community partnerships hold the key to the success of groundwater management in India.

Conclusion:

A new regulatory regime for the source of water that provides domestic water to around four-fifths of the population and the overwhelming majority of irrigation is urgently needed. The proposed new regime will benefit the resource, for instance through the introduction of groundwater security plans, and will benefit the overwhelming majority of people through local decision-making. Overall, the increasing crisis of groundwater and the failure of the existing legal regime make it imperative to entrust people directly dependent on the source of water the mandate to use it wisely and to protect it for their own benefit, as well as for future generations