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Water is vital for realizing the full potential of the agriculture sector and the country’s development. Optimum development and efficient utilization of water resources, therefore, assumes great significance.
Agriculture sector is the main stay of the Indian economy. About 70 per cent of the population is dependent upon agriculture for their livelihood. The agricultural output, however, depends upon monsoon as nearly 60 per cent of the area sown is dependent on rainfall. Water resources, with Ground Water being a major contributor, play a dominant role in the development of agriculture.
Ground Water is one of the most precious natural resources. It constitutes a major portion of fresh water available on earth both in volume and extent. Easy access, availability at point of use and unpolluted nature attribute to its importance. However, easy availability in certain areas leads to its gross misuse. Human activities have hampered the natural recharge and the level is declining very rapidly in almost every part of the country. The Ground Water has been over-exploited in many states. There has been deterioration of Ground Water quality in many areas. Hence today we are faced with shortages and pollution giving rise to the need for conservation, harvesting and artificial recharge.
India’s groundwater resources are almost ten times its annual rainfall. According to the Central Ground Water Board of the Government of India, the country has an annual exploitable groundwater potential of 26.5 million hectare-metres. Like surface water, nearly 85 per cent of currently exploited groundwater is used only for irrigation.
The importance of groundwater in the Indian economy can hardly be over emphasized. At present more than 85 per cent of water supplies for domestic use in rural areas and 50 per cent of water for urban and industrial areas besides 55 per cent of irrigation water requirements are being met from Ground Water. With agriculture contributing roughly 29 per cent of India’s GDP and production from irrigated land claiming the lion’s share, a large percentage of the country’s GDP is closely tied to the availability of Ground Water.
Ground Water is an important source of irrigation and caters to more than 45 per cent of the total irrigation in the country. The contribution of ground water irrigation to achieve self-sufficiency in food grains production in the past three decades has been phenomenal. In the coming years the Ground Water utilization is likely to increase manifold for expansion of irrigated agriculture and to achieve National targets of food production. Although the Ground Water is annually replenishable resource, its availability is non-uniform in space and time. Hence, precise estimation of Ground Water resource and irrigation potential is a prerequisite for planning its development.
Conserving Water
Conservation implies guarding against the wastage as also curtailment of use of water through improved technology. In our country, the monsoon occurs almost for 3 to 4 months in a year and the rainfall varies heavy to scanty from region to region. The monsoon provides sustainable water resources for meeting the demand during the non-monsoon period. The additional storage facilities in the form of underground reservoirs further helps in meeting out the scarcity of water during the lean monsoon. To make a natural resource sustainable over time and space, it has to be conserved meticulously. Water is essential replenishable natural resource but this quality does not exempt it from the need of conservation. There is no substitute for water. The conservation of Ground Water means to use it efficiently, prevent or reduce its wastage so that the draft from the basin is equal to the recharge and no environmental deterioration like falling/rising Ground Water levels or falling quality takes place.
Ground Water Scenario In Uttaranchal
About 85 per cent of the State of Uttaranchal has a hilly terrain covered by the Himalayas. Only a small portion forming 15 per cent is the Gangetic alluvial plain. Despite this agriculture is still the main occupation of the people. Agriculture in turn means irrigation, i.e., water. Water is also needed for the ever-increasing population. With the formation of an independent state the government has also been promoting industrialization. For this purpose one of the prime considerations will be the availability of water.
The hilly part of the state has limited occurrence of Ground Water. However, due to nature’s processes even the hard rocks comprising this hilly terrain develop secondary porosity and can contain water. Hence water conservation, harvesting and artificial recharge are very much relevant to this state. Ground Water occurs in the form of springs and seepages all over the hilly zone. The population depends largely on these for its domestic needs. Hand Pumps for Tapping Ground Water are being installed.
The foothill alluvial part of the state has good aquifers and is also the recharge area for aquifers further south in the state of Uttar Pradesh. This alluvial area had plentiful Ground Water due to which agricultural activities were accelerated at a fast pace. A large number of Ground Water structures came and grew. There is a belt of artesian aquifers in this zone. These aquifers had a copious free flow in the past. Due to this plentiful availability of Ground Water large scale Ground Water development took place which resulted in drying up of dug wells, declining of water levels and dwindling of free/artesian flow.
Management Options Of Ground Water In Uttaranchal
In hilly areas almost 95 per cent of the rainwater that falls in the catchment area goes outside state as surface run off due to high slopes. It is thus important that the run off is arrested to some extent by constructing suitable water conservation structures. The best option for the hilly terrain is construction of gully plugs and contour bunds. These structures arrest the surface runoff, increase the soil moisture, recharge the shallow ground water aquifer and also help greatly in checking soil erosion. It will also increase the discharge of springs. It is also possible to construct small check dams, nala bunds, recharge shafts and trenches at suitable locations.
In the plain areas of Uttaranchal, roof top rainfall harvesting can be adopted both by the Government organizations, private companies and individuals as well. Apart from this, several other structures like recharge shaft, trench pit, percolation tank, check dam, etc., can be constructed at places where it is technically feasible.
In areas where the Ground Water levels are deep or declining, the water conservation and recharge can salvage the situation. The low discharge springs and seepages can be augmented by these practices thereby reducing hardships of the local populace. Various methodologies to collect conserve and use monsoon run off are being put to practice.
The task of building a national economy to a large extent depends on the development and conservation of its water resources and certainly Ground Water has a dominant role to play in it. What all is needed is judicious exploitation of the Ground Water and of course its timely recharge.
*Information Officer, PIB, Dehradun
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