DECLINE OF WATER TABLE?

Uninterrupted access to clean water has emerged as one of the most critical issues in the 21st century as it affects billions of people around the world. The grave water situation in the eastern region of India calls for a better water management and the urge to take immediate steps to improve the management of water utilities, reduce wastage of water, promote water conservation. Against this backdrop, CII Eastern Region under the ‘Mission Environment’ forum organized the second edition of Water Conclave with the theme of  “Preparing for a Turbulent Future”.

The focus of the conference was on the latest water and wastewater treatment technologies recycle and reuse technologies, water demand and management, water efficiency and conservation, sustainability, irrigation water and regulations. Water Conclave 2011 deliberated on the Indian water market & issues and business opportunities & investment in eastern region.

water not only sustains life but also helps in socio economic development of any community. we must be cautioned about severe challenges in the form of ever-increasing population, steady rise in irrigation activities, rapid expansion of industries, urbanisation and modern living that are set to exert tremendous pressure on the available water resources.  India has only 4 per cent of world’s fresh water resources and climate change would put in more stress on the water availability.

The demand for water, whether for domestic, irrigation or industrial purposes, has been on the rise and water, which was available in abundance, is showing signs of scarcity in India and abroad. Several challenges in the form of declining per capita availability, deterioration in quality, over exploitation of groundwater resources leading to soil salinity and lowering of water table had already come to the fore while climate change is another complex issue faced by people today. It is our present need for  all the stakeholders to ensure cooperation and involvement, including the government, industry, NGOs and actual users by establishing appropriate linkages.

The biggest problem relating to availability of water is that we believe that it is our right to get free water.  “Reduce, Re – use and Recycle” are the three most important step towards water management. Industry needs to reduce its use of water per unit of production and they need to be water positive. Government should incentivize industry for using less water.  Re – use and recycling of water are also important. A concept for offset of water can be introduced. Water is a scarce commodity and we need to rationalize the use of it.

Historically, need for water has made man to live near it and organize access to it. If water has the capacity to enhance life then its absence can make it miserable. The global water demand could double by 2050 and experts also predict the occurrence of water wars. The most serious issue is that 1.1 billion population in the world lack access to safe water.  UK and India aims to work together towards integrated water management. Both the nations can work towards ensuring optimum utilization of water, effluent treatment, arsenic mitigation, oceanography besides others.

Uninterrupted supply of clean water is a critical issue. Climate change is one of the main causes leading to scarcity of water. The demand for water is increasing due to rapid growth in economy, population, urbanization and industrialization. There is an urgent need to change the water technologies. An appropriate legal framework is also the need of the hour.

Water may be a renewable resource but that does not mean that it can be exploited beyond a limit. That limit is set, in the Indian sub-continent, by the rate of replenishment of water through yearly monsoon rains. This cardinal principle is, however, being disregarded in the case of groundwater in many parts of the country, where it has already become scarce due to reckless use for agriculture and industry. This is worrisome; especially considering that over 60 per cent of the irrigated area that accounts for a bulk of the marketable surplus of agricultural produce relies on groundwater for crop irrigation. Besides, nearly 1,000 industrial units, including bulk water consumers like beverage-making plants, are located in areas where the groundwater aquifer is nearing exhaustion. India’s total annual groundwater extraction for various uses has been reckoned at a whopping 210 billion cubic metres, which is the highest in the world. Worse, the maximum withdrawals are in areas where the annual recharge through precipitation is inadequate to fully make up for this loss.

The Planning Commission has woken up to this alarming state of affairs and has made a presentation to the prime minister. The immediate worry is about the decline in the water table to dangerously low levels in several agriculture-intensive tracts in the South and, more particularly, the North-West, which was the cradle of the Green Revolution. Time was when water was available in abundance in these tracts. The Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) has already notified 65 areas warranting urgent regulation of groundwater exploitation. These are in the states of Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat and Rajasthan in the North, and Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Maharashtra, Karnataka and even Kerala in the South. As many as 43 of these areas are notified as ‘critical’, where water withdrawals should in no case be allowed to exceed recharge.

Apart from the decline in groundwater levels, unabated pollution of this water due to leaching of toxins from pesticides, fertilisers and industrial and municipal wastes into this subsurface aquifer is exacerbating the problem by making it unfit for many uses. A key reason for this indiscriminate tapping of groundwater through bore-wells is an archaic British-era legislation that grants an individual full rights over water underneath his land. Those who framed this statute did not, obviously, realise that underground water is a dynamic resource. The impact of its excessive removal at one site is bound to be felt in the neighbourhood as well. The Centre, no doubt, has drafted and circulated to the States a model bill to regulate and control groundwater extraction, but, most States have so far disregarded it. Even the few that have amended their laws have not provided adequate teeth to the new legal instruments.

The Planning Commission has called for effective monitoring and regulation of groundwater withdrawals, seeking a user charge on it, and ending free or unmetered supply of power for pumping groundwater for crop irrigation. For industries, it has mooted a volumetric pricing regime. These suggestions conform to the National Water Policy adopted in 2002, which had in fact recommended water pricing aimed at making users appreciate its scarcity value. Now that the Centre is revisiting this policy, the new document should state this objective even more forcefully and, additionally, suggest ways and means of ensuring its implementation by the States. India desperately needs action to recharge subsurface water aquifers through water conservation