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The theme for this 12 months’s World Water Day (March 22) —- “Groundwater: Making the Invisible, Seen” —- couldn’t be extra related for India, notably cities. India is by far the biggest person of groundwater on this planet, accounting for 25% of the worldwide water withdrawals. Roughly 45% of the water provide in India’s cities is sourced from groundwater. Sadly, this dependency on groundwater has not translated into its considered administration. The Central Groundwater Board (CGWB) estimates that about 17% of the groundwater blocks throughout the nation are overexploited, the place the speed of extraction is greater than that of renewal.
In contrast to floor water (rivers, lakes, ponds, and so forth.), groundwater is “invisible”. A fast web search will yield that hundreds of photographs of rivers or lakes are victims of encroachment, shortage, and air pollution. However whereas groundwater faces the identical challenges, there’s hardly any visible proof. That is why groundwater-related points and crises typically go unnoticed, particularly at smaller scales. It’s only when in depth research involving enormous budgets are carried out that these come to the fore.
From an city perspective, “making the invisible, seen” primarily includes having an improved understanding of this “hidden” useful resource, and mainstreaming it throughout the general water administration technique of the town in a sustainable method.
How do our cities go about attaining this?
For starters, cities have to map their groundwater sources to develop credible information in regards to the amount and high quality of the sources out there. Only a few cities in India can declare success with confidence on this regard. Given that almost all of our city areas rely closely on groundwater, having a sturdy database of this useful resource is essential to informing sustainable methods to cut back the demand-supply hole.
Encouragingly, an enabling surroundings for this has already been created with the Nationwide Venture on Aquifer Administration (NAQUIM) initiated by CGWB, and the reforms proposed within the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and City Transformation (AMRUT 2.0) by the ministry of housing and concrete affairs. It’s now as much as the cities to leverage these.
Subsequent, far too typically, cities extract far more groundwater than might be replenished naturally. That is the first purpose why cities like Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad have seen a speedy depletion of their groundwater ranges. Researchers coined the time period “sustainable yield” of groundwater to handle such challenges within the late Nineteen Nineties. That is outlined as the quantity of groundwater extraction that may be maintained indefinitely with out inflicting unacceptable environmental, financial, and social penalties.
This idea has already been adopted for groundwater administration by a number of international locations throughout the globe. For instance, as early as 1999, the US Geological Survey issued complete nationwide pointers to make sure the sustainability of groundwater sources in the USA (US). By the way, much like India, groundwater is the supply for about 51% of the ingesting water provide in city areas within the US. The sustainable yield of groundwater relies upon upon numerous site-specific elements; subsequently, it’s vital for our cities to have a contextualised understanding of this parameter to keep away from irreversible injury.
As with every administration technique involving pure sources, citizen engagement is significant for achievement. It turns into much more essential for groundwater as a result of the “invisible” nature of the useful resource makes it straightforward for individuals to get away with indiscretions. A metropolis might impose all of the required laws to manage the extraction of groundwater and incentivise the rejuvenation of depleted groundwater sources; nevertheless, monitoring this can be a herculean process. With the appearance of know-how, it’s doable to have boreholes as small as 4 inches in diameter dug as deep as 2 hundred ft. Even when solely 25% of the households within the metropolis have such boreholes, it’s nonetheless a monitoring nightmare for any metropolis administration. Likewise, households might set up a rainwater harvesting unit to avail the incentives offered to take action, or to abide by the necessary laws imposed in that regard. However it’s difficult for metropolis authorities to determine whether or not these models stay useful 12 months after 12 months.
Residents might want to step up and share the onus of motion. And step one to make this occur is to interact them in two-way dialogues for constructing collective consciousness on the necessity for neighborhood possession of groundwater administration.
Because the local weather disaster issues escalate, its impacts are inflicting vital adjustments within the move of rivers, and in some circumstances, a shift of their course. There are, subsequently, credible issues in regards to the entry and availability of floor water to fulfill future water calls for of cities. The excellent news is, not like some pure sources equivalent to minerals or oil, groundwater is renewable. If managed sustainably, it will probably proceed to function a dependable supply of water provide for our cities sooner or later.
Victor R Shinde is lead — Water and Setting, Nationwide Institute of City Affairs; and Hitesh Vaidya is director, Nationwide Institute of City Affairs.
The views expressed are private
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