Groundwater in India is a critical resource. However, an increasing number of aquifers are reaching unsustainable levels of exploitation. If current trends continue, in 20 years about 60% of all aquifers in India will be in a critical condition. This will have serious implications for the sustainability of agriculture, long-term food security, livelihoods, and economic growth. Over a quarter of the country’s harvest is estimated to be at risk. There is an urgent need to change the status quo.
Key Issues
India is the largest user of groundwater in the world. It uses an estimated 230 cubic kilometers of groundwater per year - over a quarter of the global total. More than 60% of irrigated agriculture and 85% of drinking water supplies are dependent on groundwater. Inadequate municipal water supplies in rapidly growing urban areas have forced urban residents to rely increasingly on groundwater.
According to the 2004 nationwide assessment, 29% of groundwater blocks are semi-critical, critical, or overexploited, and the situation is deteriorating rapidly. Aquifers are depleting in the most populated and economically productive areas. Climate change will further strain groundwater resources.
Groundwater acts a buffer against the variability of monsoon rains. A rainfall deficit in 1963-66 decreased India’s food production by 20% but a similar drought in 1987-88 had very small impact on food production largely due to widespread prevalence of groundwater.
A complex web of factors determines the extraction of this valuable resource: size of landholdings, density of population, water-intensity of crops planted, water users’ behavior, legislation and administration of groundwater, power subsidies for pumping irrigation water, and economic policies.
Findings and Recommendations
India has both hard-rock and alluvial aquifers which differ considerably in their physical and socioeconomic profiles and require very different sets of solutions at both the macro and micro levels. As global experience offers few comparable models, home grown solutions will be needed.
Regulatory measures
Effective regulation requires not only sound legislation but also the administrative capacity to monitor and enforce rules. This becomes extremely difficult when there are very large numbers of small users. Neither the Central Ground Water Authority nor the state groundwater agencies have the resources or personnel to oversee the enforcement of regulations. Effective use of such measures is only possible for a small numbers of severely threatened resources.
Economic instruments
Pricing measures can act as incentives to conserve water and allocate it more efficiently provided concerns of equity and affordability to the poor are addressed. However, with more than 20 million wells, implementing pricing mechanisms will require resources that do not seem to exist.
Tradable groundwater rights
While a well-defined rights regime helps resource users to reach optimal outcomes, they too face the very high transaction costs of implementation.
Community management of groundwater
The community groundwater management model in Andhra Pradesh, assessed by the report, stands out as the first global example of large-scale success in community management of groundwater. Over 500 farming communities in 7 drought-prone districts have begun to bring their water use in line with groundwater availability - reducing groundwater use in some years - and at the same time improving agricultural incomes. This model is potentially replicable for two-thirds of India’s groundwater settings – at least in hard rock aquifers.
Building capacity and adjusting role of state groundwater institutions
The capacity of state groundwater institutions will need to be developed to ensure that they can perform the key functions of providing information and technical support, enabling community management, and enforcing regulatory measures.
Promoting conjunctive use in agriculture
In the irrigation canal commands of the Ganga and Indus river systems, heavy depletion of aquifers often exists in close proximity to problems of waterlogging and salinization arising from canal leakages and excessive use of surface water in high-water-table areas. Microzone planning including, for example, bank sealing and desedimentation of major canals could increase cropping intensity without compromising the sustainability of groundwater.
Integrating groundwater in urban water supply planning
Municipal agencies need to develop a more coordinated vision of, and balanced policy between the provision of water supply and sanitation by utilities and private self-supply.
Pricing agricultural power
Gujarat’s scheme of separate power supply for agriculture, which provides 24-hour power supply for domestic, institutional, and industrial use in villages, with the farmers getting 8 hours of improved quality and reliable power on an announced schedule, has allowed regulation of electricity and groundwater use with few political repercussions. This is potentially replicable elsewhere. Meanwhile, efforts to involve all stakeholders in trying to craft a solution to the energy–groundwater nexus need to be instigated.
Key Issues
India is the largest user of groundwater in the world. It uses an estimated 230 cubic kilometers of groundwater per year - over a quarter of the global total. More than 60% of irrigated agriculture and 85% of drinking water supplies are dependent on groundwater. Inadequate municipal water supplies in rapidly growing urban areas have forced urban residents to rely increasingly on groundwater.
According to the 2004 nationwide assessment, 29% of groundwater blocks are semi-critical, critical, or overexploited, and the situation is deteriorating rapidly. Aquifers are depleting in the most populated and economically productive areas. Climate change will further strain groundwater resources.
Groundwater acts a buffer against the variability of monsoon rains. A rainfall deficit in 1963-66 decreased India’s food production by 20% but a similar drought in 1987-88 had very small impact on food production largely due to widespread prevalence of groundwater.
A complex web of factors determines the extraction of this valuable resource: size of landholdings, density of population, water-intensity of crops planted, water users’ behavior, legislation and administration of groundwater, power subsidies for pumping irrigation water, and economic policies.
Findings and Recommendations
India has both hard-rock and alluvial aquifers which differ considerably in their physical and socioeconomic profiles and require very different sets of solutions at both the macro and micro levels. As global experience offers few comparable models, home grown solutions will be needed.
Regulatory measures
Effective regulation requires not only sound legislation but also the administrative capacity to monitor and enforce rules. This becomes extremely difficult when there are very large numbers of small users. Neither the Central Ground Water Authority nor the state groundwater agencies have the resources or personnel to oversee the enforcement of regulations. Effective use of such measures is only possible for a small numbers of severely threatened resources.
Economic instruments
Pricing measures can act as incentives to conserve water and allocate it more efficiently provided concerns of equity and affordability to the poor are addressed. However, with more than 20 million wells, implementing pricing mechanisms will require resources that do not seem to exist.
Tradable groundwater rights
While a well-defined rights regime helps resource users to reach optimal outcomes, they too face the very high transaction costs of implementation.
Community management of groundwater
The community groundwater management model in Andhra Pradesh, assessed by the report, stands out as the first global example of large-scale success in community management of groundwater. Over 500 farming communities in 7 drought-prone districts have begun to bring their water use in line with groundwater availability - reducing groundwater use in some years - and at the same time improving agricultural incomes. This model is potentially replicable for two-thirds of India’s groundwater settings – at least in hard rock aquifers.
Building capacity and adjusting role of state groundwater institutions
The capacity of state groundwater institutions will need to be developed to ensure that they can perform the key functions of providing information and technical support, enabling community management, and enforcing regulatory measures.
Promoting conjunctive use in agriculture
In the irrigation canal commands of the Ganga and Indus river systems, heavy depletion of aquifers often exists in close proximity to problems of waterlogging and salinization arising from canal leakages and excessive use of surface water in high-water-table areas. Microzone planning including, for example, bank sealing and desedimentation of major canals could increase cropping intensity without compromising the sustainability of groundwater.
Integrating groundwater in urban water supply planning
Municipal agencies need to develop a more coordinated vision of, and balanced policy between the provision of water supply and sanitation by utilities and private self-supply.
Pricing agricultural power
Gujarat’s scheme of separate power supply for agriculture, which provides 24-hour power supply for domestic, institutional, and industrial use in villages, with the farmers getting 8 hours of improved quality and reliable power on an announced schedule, has allowed regulation of electricity and groundwater use with few political repercussions. This is potentially replicable elsewhere. Meanwhile, efforts to involve all stakeholders in trying to craft a solution to the energy–groundwater nexus need to be instigated.
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