Priyanka Saurabh
India is the largest user of groundwater and 87% is used for irrigation. Recently the Ministry of Jal Shakti released the “Dynamic Ground Water Resource Assessment Report” for the year 2022 for the entire country. The assessment was done jointly by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and the States/UTs. The life of every living being found on the earth is dependent on water. Therefore its availability is necessary. We consider water as a free or free gift of nature when the fact is that water is not free but a valuable gift of nature. Therefore, if we do not use and conserve water judiciously, then our very existence will be in danger.
Nature has provided us with all things in sufficient quantity. But the person’s selfishness and carelessness towards water are making this gift a cause of war. Today it is a matter of concern that resourceful people are misusing water in the form of entertainment along with excessive exploitation of water in daily life. We should know that it is a limited resource and the wealth of the entire living world. Every living being (tree-plant, animal-bird, poor and rich) has a water right. Today, living in an urban environment and a resource-rich area, we are not able to make a realistic assessment of water scarcity. The 2022 assessment suggests that groundwater extraction (16 BCM) is the lowest since 2004. A reduction in groundwater extraction may indicate better water management. Improvement in groundwater status in 909 assessment units in the country as compared to 2017 assessment data. The total annual groundwater recharge for the country as a whole is 437.60 billion cubic meters (BCM). Groundwater withdrawal is very high in the states of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman, and Diu where it is more than 100%.Groundwater withdrawals range between 60-100% in Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and the union territories of Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry. The rest of the states have groundwater extraction below 60%. There is no central law governing the use of groundwater and various states have their laws to regulate its extraction which is implemented in a lax manner. A draft National Water Policy recommends a change in the use of water from consuming crops and prioritizing recycling over freshwater for industrial purposes.To improve the water table in areas where it is being over-used, farm water management techniques and better irrigation methods should be adopted. eg. Methods of artificial recharge of groundwater. To reduce the depletion of water resources, traditional methods of water conservation should be encouraged. For example, household runoff water is an excellent source of irrigation. The agricultural electricity-pricing structure needs to be revamped as the flat rate of electricity adversely affects the use of groundwater.There should be a policy to monitor the over-exploitation of groundwater resources to ensure long-term sustainability. eg. Water meters can be installed to monitor overuse. Groundwater depletion is becoming an alarming problem day by day. Leveraging schemes such as the Atal Bhujal Yojana, which seeks to strengthen the institutional framework and bring behavioral change at the community level for sustainable groundwater resource management, is important.The water level is going down at the rate of one foot every year. Today the situation has become critical due to the continuous extracting of nectar in the form of groundwater from the lap of Mother Earth, most parts of the country have come under block dark zone and this number is increasing continuously. No part of the country has escaped from this situation. In many cities, tankers have become the only means of water supply. In rural areas, the situation is very critical, where most of the women spend a lot of time and labor in the water system of the house. Due to the indiscriminate exploitation of water, the reserves below the ground are getting empty, the rivers also dry up after a few months of rain and many are on the verge of extinction. According to the report of the World Wildlife Fund, the reason for the shortage of water in the rivers is climate change and excessive exploitation of water.
Priyanka Saurabh
Research Scholar in Political Science,
Poetess, freelance journalist, and columnist
