E-Paper
Agra among 8 districts where ground water extraction is more than recharge
Like someone who withdraws money from his bank account at a rate faster than depositing it ends up facing problems, several UP districts in UP are doing exactly
Like someone who withdraws money from his bank account at a rate faster than depositing it ends up facing problems, several UP districts in UP are doing exactly the same with regard to the groundwater that is often compared to money stored in the ground.
Either, these districts are withdrawing and spending more groundwater for agriculture, domestic and industrial usage than what can be replenished or they the gap between the groundwater they withdraw and the water they store is more than what is deemed to be normal.
Consequently, danger of a sinking water table now threatens most of these districts.
The UP government’s latest yet to-be-released report on the ‘dynamic groundwater resources assessment, 2017, shows that in UP there are least eight districts where the total annual ground water extraction is above 100% vis-à-vis the total annual groundwater recharge.
Districts with more than 100% groundwater extraction are Agra (107.50%), Amroha (104.50%), Firozabad (111.39), Gautam Buddh Nagar (109.66%), Ghaziabad (128.36%), Hapur (107.34%), Saharanpur (119.9%) and Shamli (109.265).
As per report, there are another around two dozen districts where annual ground water extraction is in between 70% and 100%.
Prominent of them are Varanasi (99.74), Baghpat (92.84%), Badaun, Meerut (84%), (80.85), Etah (80.53), Moradabad (89.34%), Mathura (89.345), Sambhal (91.57%), Prataogarh (80.24%) and Mahoba (87.77).
However, the stage of water extraction against the recharge has been found to be the lowest in Etawah at only 38.91%. Jhansi and Jalaun are also better off with 49.65% and 49.32% annual abstraction.
“Groundwater extraction above 70% of the recharge is considered to be alarming and steps are taken to deal with the situation,” groundwater director, VK Upadhyaya said. But, even the average groundwater extraction in UP has been found above 70%.
As per the report, the total annual groundwater recharge in the state was found to be 69.92 bcm (billion cubic metres) against the total extraction of 45.84 bcm which is 70.18% of the recharge. Irrigation alone accounted for 40.89 bcm, that is nearly 90% extraction of the total water while the share of extraction of water for domestic and industrial use was only 4.95 bcm which is only 10%.
It is seen that all the eight districts, barring Firozabad, where the groundwater exploitation has been found above 100% fall in the affluent western region which number of private tube wells and pumps are said to be more than the total numbers of bores put together in rest of the state.
“The private tube wells and pump sets that run on the subsidized electricity is the major cause of indiscriminate exploitation of groundwater resources causing the water table deplete in more than 30% of the blocks in UP. The situation is worst in the Western UP where farmers prefer to depend more on private tube wells for irrigation,” said Satya Prakash Khanna, ex-director, Central Ground Water, UP.
DISTRICTS WITH MORE THAN 100% WITHDHRAWAL OF GROUNDWATER
District Total annual ground water recharge Total extraction Stage of extraction %
Agra 91226.49 91118.22 107.5O
Amroha 49813.35 49189.05 104.58
Firizabad 75664.29 786799.13 111.39
GB Nagar 65104.18 66395.26 109.66
Ghaziabad 41143.30 47530.76 128.36
Hapur 48190.30 49141.16 107.34
Saharanpur 128726.34 49141.16 107.34
Shamli 42515.34 49141.16 107.34
Water unit in ham (hectare metre)
