{"id":8823,"date":"2020-07-03T20:14:31","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T14:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/?p=8823"},"modified":"2020-07-03T20:14:31","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T14:44:31","slug":"solution-to-groundwater-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/triumphias.com\/blog\/solution-to-groundwater-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Solution to Groundwater Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Relevance: Mains: G.S paper III:\u00a0Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/header>\n<\/section>\n
\n

Introduction:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Delhi<\/p>\n

\u2022 The General Budget for 2020\u201321, Finance Minister announced that the government will identify 100 most \u2018water stressed\u2019 districts and comprehensive measures on addressing this shortage will be chalked out. Ms Sitharaman further told that this will be a part of the Jal Jivan mission, for which Rs 3.06 lakh crore has been earmarked.<\/p>\n

Outline of the Jal Jivan mission:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 The proceeds outlined for the Jal Jivan is slated to be used for augmenting existing water resources, recharging of lakes, water desalination, rain water harvesting as well as sewage water treatment.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Announcement of such a huge cash spending on a problem which had so far been mostly heard only in seminars, closed door discussions and by the way of NGO activism, was no aberration.<\/p>\n

\u2022 This development had been written in 2018 when NITI Aayog, the top intellectual body of the Central Government, came up with its maiden the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI).<\/p>\n

\u2022 This was the first ever effort in independent India to fathom the water crisis scientifically at every inch of the country.<\/p>\n

\u2022 NITI Aayog described it as \u201cthe first comprehensive collection of country-wide water data in India based on in-depth structured
\nquestionnaires followed by focus group discussions to generate qualitative information.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 The scenario that this decorated document unveiled left little option with the government to further delay the response to the looming water crisis in front of the country.<\/p>\n

Ground Water Crisis in India: How severe is it?<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Solutions<\/p>\n

\u2022 According to the maiden 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.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Nearly 40 percent of the population will have absolutely no access to drinking water by 2030, and 6 percent of India\u2019s GDP would be lost by 2050 due to water crisis.<\/p>\n

\u2022 However, 12 per cent of India\u2019s population is already living the \u2018Day Zero\u2019 scenario, thanks to excessive groundwater pumping, an inefficient and wasteful water management system and years of deficient rains. The CWMI report also states that by 2030, the country\u2019s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply, implying severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people. It has been reported that in many parts of the country the water table is declining at the rate of 1-2 m\/year.<\/p>\n

\"GROUNDWATER<\/p>\n

International norms to recognised as water stress country:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 As per the international norms, a country is classified as water stressed and water scarce if per capita water availability goes below 1700 cubic meter and 1000 cubic meter, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The per capita availability of water is estimated to decline further to 1465 cubic meter by 2025 and 1235 cubic meter by 2050. If it declines further to around 1000-1100 cubic meter, then India could be declared as water-stressed country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Government\u2019s Response So Far:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Water<\/p>\n

\u2022 Equipped with the broad scientific data about rapidly deteriorating qualitative as well as quantitative water tables across India, the Narendra Modi Government established a whole new ministry to fight the menace in its second term.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In May 2019, as Modi 2.0 government took the reign of the country in its second term, the Prime Minister merged two ministries Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation to create a new ministry, which was named as Ministry of Jal Shakti.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The ministry launched Jal Shakti Abhiyan in an effort to over-bridge the water challenge being faced by 1592 water-stressed blocks in 256 districts by the way of a campaign for water conservation and water security.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It was decided on the highest level that water conservation efforts would be unleashed to ensure five important water conservation interventions: water conservation and rainwater harvesting; renovation of traditional and other water bodies\/tanks; reuse borewell recharge structures; watershed development and intensive afforestation.<\/p>\n

Two ways the government can play its role:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 One, by extending policy incentives to stop the misuse of groundwater; and<\/p>\n

\u2022 Two, by unleashing a movement on the model of \u2018Swachh Bharat Abhiyan\u2019 to create awareness among people against wasting water.<\/p>\n

Anatomy of the Problem:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 While talking about the water crisis, potability is only a small part of the problem.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In fact, many developed countries have already found a solution of potable water by turning seawater into drinkable water on mass scale. But the real catastrophe waiting to happen, is in agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u2022 As per the Land Use Statistics 2014\u201315, the total geographical area of the country is 328.7 million hectares, of which 140.1 million hectares is the reported net sown area. As per a World Bank report, India withdrew a total of 761 billion cubic meter ground water in 2018 out of which 688 billion cubic metre was used for agriculture. This is 90 percent of the total groundwater withdrawn in a year. The other side of the problem is that out of the total water volume needed for agriculture, 70 percent is groundwater today. Both the data, if put together, gives us a glimpse about the possible ways to find a solution of this grim problem.<\/p>\n

\"Preserving<\/p>\n

Agricultural success in Punjab region:<\/span><\/h3>\n

Punjab, a celebrated story of agricultural success, is gradually turning into a graveyard of agriculture. The result of the policy of excessive subsidy on chemical fertilizers and pesticides on one hand and encouragement to farmers for unbridled use of groundwater by providing them free electricity on the other, has resulted in double whammy. One, the state is devoid of groundwater and two, the upper crest under soil has developed a layer of hard chemical residue due to which the rainwater simply flows away without seeping into the ground. So, there is little bewilderment that Punjab has the highest groundwater development ratio.
\nThe level of groundwater development is very high in the states of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, where groundwater development is more than 100 percent with Punjab being on top with 172 percent. This implies that in these states, the annual groundwater consumption is more than annual groundwater recharge. Not only that, incentives to wastewater has also worsened the state\u2019s water productivity. Punjab requires two to three times as much water as Bihar and West Bengal to produce a kilogram of rice.<\/p>\n

How will it impact the farmers?<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 Farmers often give such maths a cold shoulder terming it a luxury because they think it is something they are supposed to worry about in favour of comparatively affluent people. What they don\u2019t comprehend is that it is them, who is most affected by this anomaly.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The adversity befalls upon them in two ways.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sinking water level increases their cost of cultivation and decreases the production level at one hand, and increases their cost of living on the other hand.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Water scarcity impacts farmers\u2019 profit negatively, established a study titled \u2018The Efficiency of Rationing: Agricultural Power Subsidies, Power Supply and Groundwater Depletion in Rajasthan\u2019 published in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u2022 This study found that farmers facing greater water scarcity sink deeper wells and are more likely to grow water-hardy crops and make investments in water-conserving irrigation technologies.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Despite these investments, water scarcity still decreases profits and lands them in debt, according to the study.<\/p>\n

\u2022 In many parts of the country, where the ground water has reached to the level of rocks beneath soil, the productivity has gone down drastically and the cost of cultivation has shot up. Even in the selection of crops, the farmers in such areas don\u2019t find much option. Even if the water table goes down below 600 ft plus, the cost of borewell increases multiple times.<\/p>\n

\u2022 There are strong links between cash cropping, the failure of borewells, overwhelming debts and farmer suicides in the semi-arid regions of northern and western Andhra Pradesh and other parts of the Deccan plateau, according to a study published in Third World Quarterly in 2013.<\/p>\n

What is the solution?<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 One thing is very clear. We cannot create water. We can only preserve water that we already have with us and that we will get in future in the form of rains. But again the rain data across the globe describes the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u2022 While at just over 260 cubic km per year, India uses 25 percent of all groundwater extracted globally, ahead of the US and China, while it receives only four percent of the global precipitation and ranks 133 in the world in terms of water availability per person per annum.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The approach to control the situation before it gets out of hand must have multi-directional dimensions. And because 90 percent of the water is used by agriculture, no solution will work lest we should keep cultivation in the centre.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The key to the solution is producing more with less water. This goal can be achieved in two ways, one by shifting from more water guzzling crops to lesser ones and two, by creating awareness among farmers to use micro-irrigation tools.<\/p>\n

\u2022 To achieve the optimum result with the first approach, ICAR\u2019s two bodies, National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research and Indian Institute of Farming Systems Research at Modipuram, Meerut, are working toward this aim. The crop planning would be based
\non local climatic conditions, water availability and overall demand-supply situation and could help the government to plan its
\nincentives in such ways that farmers will adopt those recommended crops, according to the ICAR.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Experts say there is a need to double the area under micro-irrigation from the current level of nine million hectares.<\/p>\n

\u2022 But it is easier said than done. In spite of the fact that almost all states have subsidy on getting micro-irrigation system, it is flouted by the lower lever corruption by the related companies in connivance with agriculture department officials. This discourages farmers from going for it.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Moreover, due to lack of awareness, most of them think that micro-irrigation is only for the regions where farmers don\u2019t have much water availability.<\/p>\n

\u2022 To change the mind set of the producers, the government needs to rope in private sector along with its own agencies for successfully running focussed awareness programmes around benefits of micro-irrigation.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The farmers should be taught how flood irrigation results in wastage of water and energy as well as reduce the efficiency of fertilisers.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Also, there should be stress laid on the need for scheduling of irrigation process and said technologies like moisture sensor and other software that are available to achieve this aim.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Other than to use the available water judiciously, the farmers also need to be made aware and trained about conservation of water. There are many farmers across the country who have developed unique models of cultivation where each drop of rain water falling within their farm land is preserved.<\/p>\n

Conclusion:<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u2022 With all means of communication, it has to be made a part of national conscience that ground water rejuvenation has no option and that it is needed not only for future generations, but also for the present population.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

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