04 Apr Groundwater : An essentiality of its conservation for our survival
Groundwater – Today Current Affairs
Context : The world is celebrating World Water Day (March 22) . The theme of the world Water day is ‘Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible’. The significance of groundwater is not only in the form of the availability of drinking water and irrigation requirements but also it protects us from several natural disasters like drought .
Today Current Affairs
Introduction
Groundwater is the water found underground in the cracks and spaces in soil, sand and rock. It is stored and can be used for drinking and irrigation purposes. Approximately 30 % of the world’s freshwater is groundwater . For several years it has been observed that we are continuously exploiting this groundwater and the level of ground water is continuously decreasing . There must be some approach to recharge ground water from time to time so that we could protect us from the problems due to scarcity of the water in future .The primary focus is to draw attention to the role of groundwater in water and sanitation systems, agriculture, industry, ecosystems, and climate change adaptation. Ground water help us to catering the needs of arid and semiarid regions
Generally the importance of groundwater is still not understood very well by our policy makers . This is the only reason for the continuous decrease of the ground water level however our dependence on ground water is continuously increasing . There are serious issues of depletion of stored groundwater and deterioration of quality.
Because of global warming, there is a big threat to water security. However several conference international levels were organized where the concern regarding the conservation of the ground water level were shown but in view of policy making and its implementation its is still approximately negligible . The international conference on ‘Groundwater, Key to the Sustainable Development Goals’ (May 2022) and the UN-Water Summit on Groundwater (December 2022) are part of global initiatives to highlight the significance of groundwater in sustainable development.
If we talk about India . Our country is the largest user of groundwater in the world. We generally use almost 89% of the ground water for only agricultural purposes and the rest 9 % for domestic use and 2 % for industrial use. Thus we see there are some regions in India where , with the use of power and technology, groundwater is continuously extracting without keeping in mind the concept of sustainable development
Extraction value : The Hindu Analysis
We can extract the groundwater below to 70 % of its availability annually. The use of the ground water annually is given the term extraction value . As per the Central Ground Water Board, the extraction value must be below 70% . If we see the available data provided by the government we observe that the use or extraction of the groundwater level was almost fine up to the year of 2017. It was 63 % . However it increased from 2004 (58 %). However some states of India , had crossed the limit of extraction rate ( 70 %) like Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry . The date of 202 districts of 22 states /UTs are more dangerous with the extraction rate ranging from 71 % to 385 %. We must be very concerned in this regard . Our policy makers (NITI AYOG) have set a goal to bring down this extraction rate up to 70 % up to 2030 in those regions where it is more.
Beside the extraction rate, equity of the extracted water should also be the issue of the concern . In some districts of India , in ground water we see the accessibility of . Fluoride, iron, salinity, nitrate, and arsenic which are dangerous for our health . As many as 335 districts reported nitrate pollution compared to 109 in 2006. Therefore we must change our approach to reduce the extraction rate as well as to ensure the quality of groundwater
New Approach : The Hindu Analysis
Current approach is dealing with surface water and groundwater independently. This approach has several limitations as described by the Mihir Shah Committee (2016) that the Central Water Commission and the Central Ground Water Board so that a water policy at national level could be formed unanimously . At the national level many policies are needed regarding how to recharge our ground water from rain water . We must make several different policies for soil water , surface water
Government must reestablish connections between surface and groundwater systems. The policy makers should use the local area approach that will involve revisiting the present groundwater estimations process, large-scale aquifer mapping, linking aquifers with river basin/watershed boundaries, hydrogeomorphology analysis, and factoring land uses and human-induced changes in the water system.
Policy makers must collect the data regarding cropping pattern crop intensity with groundwater availability, aquifer type, and the present state of groundwater extraction at the farm and accordingly make the plan to minimize the extraction rate
In present days , for the irrigation purpose there is subsidized electricity which generally encourages the farmers to maximum extraction of the groundwater which must be regularized and the parallel government should ensure the recharging of the ground water during the time of rainy seasons for those areas also .
Today Current Affairs
Conclusion
As per the above discussion , we see the significance of groundwater . We are extracting groundwater without keeping it in our mind for the future. The extraction of water is necessary for irrigation but the arrangement of its recharging during the rainy season must be our duty . groundwater management is the socio-ecological challenge which could be addressed through the awareness of the community .
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Source : The Hindu (Editorial)
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