Groundwater may fall below 100m in north west India

The report, which has been submitted to state governments, draws on data recorded between 1994 and May 2018 and shows that withdrawal of groundwater has been greater than recharge

Published on: May 15, 2019, 07:14:51 IST

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By Chetan Chauhan

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Ground water found at a depth of about 100 metres in north-west India will be exhausted within the next 10 years, according to a draft report of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) that highlights its over-exploitation in the region.

The entire agriculture belt of northern and western Rajasthan, groundwater levels have fast depleted and are now in a critical stage. (AP)

The report, which has been submitted to state governments, draws on data recorded between 1994 and May 2018 and shows that withdrawal of groundwater has been greater than recharge -- against an annual gross groundwater withdrawal of 35.78 billion cubic meters (BCM), the annual recharge has only been 21.58 BCM.

According to the report, groundwater level has been falling at the rate of 51cm every year and, at present, it is at a depth of 10-65 metres in the region.

Over the past decade, an increase in the frequency of drought-like situations has led to an increase in withdrawal of groundwater. The India Meteorological Department reports (2012-2017) on rainfall patterns show that Himachal and Uttarakhand has received 25%-40% rainfall while Punjab, Haryana and parts of Rajasthan have received 15%-20% rainfall.

The impact is clearly visible in the groundwater data released by the CGWB for these states.

In Punjab, the districts of Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Nawashahr, Sangrur, Patiala and Barnala are in the red for over-exploitation of groundwater. “The report is alarming and clearly states that groundwater at a depth of 100 metres will end in the next 10 years if the present rate of withdrawal continues,” said a Punjab water resources department official, who was not willing to be quoted.

Likewise in Haryana, the districts of Sirsa, Yamunanagar, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Gurugram, Faridabad, Bhiwani, Rewari are in the red for over-exploitation of groundwater. In certain parts of Haryana, such as Sirsa, the groundwater situation is worse than that of Punjab.

In the entire agriculture belt of northern and western Rajasthan, groundwater levels have fast depleted and are now in a critical stage. Except the tribal belt of southern Rajasthan and parts of eastern Rajasthan, the entire state has a groundwater emergency, according to latest data on the CGWB website.

In Delhi, only the southern parts are in the red. There has been an improvement in groundwater levels in north-western and eastern parts of the national capital. Most of the areas that the Central Ground Water Authority has notified as having “critical” groundwater levels are in these four states.

The falling groundwater levels in these states will have implications on supply of drinking water as well as agriculture as over a million tubewells provide water for both. Though Haryana and Punjab have irrigation facilities, a large part of Rajasthan is totally dependent on groundwater for its needs.

P Nandkumaram, member-secretary of the CGWB, said the groundwater assessment report has been submitted to the water resources ministry. He refused to divulge details pending vetting of the report by the ministry.

“The situation is bad but not alarming,” said a senior scientist with the board who was not willing to be quoted as he was not authorised to speak to the media. “If we continue to exploit groundwater the way we are doing in an unsustainable manner, we are heading for disaster. We can sustain water at 50-60 metres below the ground but for that some regulation is needed.”

Himanshu Thakkar, an IIT alumnus, who runs a non-government organization South Asia Network of People, Rivers and Dams, said farmers’ over-dependence on groundwater was the prime reason for depletion. “Even though India receives good rainfall every year, in many regions water is now available more than 100 metres below the ground. In some places, it is even more than 200 metres. The situation clearly shows that there is mismanagement, not proper use of rain water and gross misuse of groundwater, which is India’s water lifeline,” he said.

The CWGB report said at the current rate of extraction, all available groundwater resources till a depth of 300 metres in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan will be exhausted in the next 20-25 years. The extraction of ground water in the region has increased from 149% in 2013 to 165% in 2018, the report said.

Nationally, the situation is slightly better. Against the annual groundwater availability of 411 BCM, the annual withdrawal is estimated to be 253 BCM. The board has observation wells at 30,000 locations in India, providing data on 16 attributes for four seasons in a year.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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