Ground Water Management

Urgent measures are necessary to address the water crisis in India

While the crisis is often discussed, law and policy measures to address it remain insufficient

India is the largest user of groundwater in the world, extracting about 25% of the global groundwater extraction.

India has about 1123 billion m3 of water resources available, out of which 690 bcm is surface water and rest 433 bcm is groundwater.

Out of total groundwater available, 90% of it is used for irrigation purposes which is mainly for agricultural purposes.

The remaining 10% accounts for domestic and industrial purposes combined.

According to the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) report released by the NITI Aayog in 2018, 21 major cities (Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and others) are racing to reach zero groundwater levels by 2020, affecting access for 100 million people.

Primary source of domestic water and irrigation is groundwater but the media and policymakers still focussing on surface water.

This needs to change as water tables have been falling rapidly in many parts of the country, and use exceeds replenishment.

During the past decades, groundwater usage in India has grown many folds and at present 80% of rural domestic needs and 65% of irrigation water requirement and 50% of industrial and urban water needs are sourced from scarce ground water resources.

Over exploitation of ground water has started threatening sustenance of agricultural activities in many key regions in country including Punjab, Rajasthan and Bundelkhand region of central India. It is posing grave threat to food security in future.

Legal framework governing access to the resource

Landowner have the right to access groundwater found under their land, and they see groundwater as their own and as a resource they can exploit without considering the need to protect and replenish it since there are no immediate consequences for over-exploiting it.

Access to a source of groundwater has become a source of power and economic gain

With the propagation of mechanical pumps, big landowners to sell water to others for economic gain

Mechanical pumping led to the situation that recharge could not keep pace with use.

1970 model Bill focused on State-level control over new, additional uses of groundwater but did not address the iniquitous regime giving landowners unlimited control over groundwater.

The States that have groundwater legislation based on the model Bill,1970 failed to address the problem of falling water tables due to increasing use

There is no provision to protect and conserve groundwater at the aquifer level.

It fails to give gram sabhas and panchayats a prevailing say in the regulation and the framework remains mostly top-down and is incapable of addressing local situations adequately.

Planning Commission and Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation recognised that present legal regime has failed to address the ground water crisis.

The result is the Groundwater (Sustainable Management) Bill, 2017

Proposes a different regulatory framework

Based on the recognition of the unitary nature of water, the need for decentralised control over groundwater and the necessity to protect it at aquifer level

Recognition that water is a public trust (groundwater is a common pool resource), the recognition of the fundamental right to water and the introduction of protection principles, including the precautionary principle, that are currently absent from water legislation.

Builds on the decentralisation mandate that is already enshrined in general legislation but has not been implemented effectively as far as groundwater is concerned and

Seeks to give regulatory control over groundwater to local users.

According to first of its kind study of NASA, India is among hotspots where overuse of water resources has caused sharp decline in availability of freshwater.

The study revealed that wetter parts of earth’s were getting wetter and dry areas getting drier due to variety of factors, including human water use, climate change and natural cycles.

Areas in northern and eastern India, West Asia, Australia and California (US) are among hotspots where overuse of water resources has caused serious decline in availability of freshwater.

In northern India, groundwater extraction for irrigation of wheat and rice crops has led to depletion, despite rainfall being normal.

The groundwater extractions has already exceed recharge during normal precipitation does not bode well for the availability of groundwater during future droughts.

Expressing concern over depleting groundwater levels, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has set up a committee to formulate steps required to prevent illegal extraction of groundwater.

NGT directed the committee to evolve a robust mechanism for ensuring that groundwater is not illegally extracted and to monitor manning and functioning of Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA).

The tribunal took to notice that despite a 1996 order of Supreme Court order with regard to groundwater extraction, the water level has only gone down.

The SC order had directed central government to constitute a body to look into the issue of groundwater depletion.

However, in spite of clear directions of Supreme Court, the CGWA is unwilling to take the ownership of subject and repeatedly takes the plea that it does not have infrastructure or that the responsibility of dealing with problem is of States and not that of the said authority