Of late it has become apparent the the Governance – both in Centre and in the States have become more inefficient, lacklustre, controversial, and outright lack of foresight. The prime example is the flooding in unprecedented scales during abundant monsoon, and water scarcity if the monsoon is even slightly deficient, leave alone a failed monsoon.
Now, water scarcity is felt all around the world, ironically when research and observations prove that the planet is ‘sweating’ more from its ice caps due to global warming. Australia has suffered a couple of years with drought, due to El Nino-La Nina conditions. On the other side, two of the largest aquifers in USA – the Central Valley in California, and the Ogallala in the Midwest – suffer from unregulated over pumping out of the ground water. The thing about these aquifers they are all riverine, that is surroundings of a river catchment or watershed areas. Hold this thought in mind.
In the USA, the aquifer (underground basins that hold groundwater reserves) systems are well mapped, with their extent, capacity, and levels very well understood. However, in India, we only woke up to the aquifers in 2009, after the NASA GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellites exposed that the North West India Aquifer (NWIA) is being depleted rapidly. It took us another 3 years to girdle up, and a World Bank funded National Aquifer Mapping Program (NAMP) was initiated in 2012 In fact continuing observations (till 2016) show that NWIA aquifer has the world’s highest depletion rate.
Unlike the Americans, we could not use the satellites. The reason was technology – basically we needed access to precise GPS code for a GRACE like mission – and India’s GAGAN was then still on the drawing board. So we opted for mass pilot drilling projects to map the aquifers funded by World Bank.
First the types and extent of the major aquifers were identified. It was to have been expanded in the 12th (2013-2017) and 13th Five Year Plans. The 13th Five Year plan is kaput, thanks to Narendra Modi’s shutdown of Planning Commission and replacing it with Niti Aayog. So, right now, no one is sure whether the NAMP will progress further or not.
While we do not know the actual capacity – depth, volume, sustainable extraction capacity, interlinking and interaction within - of the Indian Aquifers, we do have a fair idea of ground water levels. Thanks to the budding NAMP programme, groundwater level measurement stations are now fairly distributed on the ground.
NAMP is the reason we find reports in the last few years about ground water levels falling below 200 or 500 feet in some areas, and almost every summer, dire warnings about sea water ingress into coastal groundwater, especially in Tamil Nadu.
You might ask what exactly has all this to do with Water Scarcity and Government Apathy. By any measure, it would appear the governments have actually woken up from 2012 and are on the job.
Actually, this is the primer, the foundation, for what the apathy or lack of foresight is all about.
Here is the animated GIF of the depletion of the North West India Aquifer between 2003 and 2008.
Now, water scarcity is felt all around the world, ironically when research and observations prove that the planet is ‘sweating’ more from its ice caps due to global warming. Australia has suffered a couple of years with drought, due to El Nino-La Nina conditions. On the other side, two of the largest aquifers in USA – the Central Valley in California, and the Ogallala in the Midwest – suffer from unregulated over pumping out of the ground water. The thing about these aquifers they are all riverine, that is surroundings of a river catchment or watershed areas. Hold this thought in mind.
In the USA, the aquifer (underground basins that hold groundwater reserves) systems are well mapped, with their extent, capacity, and levels very well understood. However, in India, we only woke up to the aquifers in 2009, after the NASA GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellites exposed that the North West India Aquifer (NWIA) is being depleted rapidly. It took us another 3 years to girdle up, and a World Bank funded National Aquifer Mapping Program (NAMP) was initiated in 2012 In fact continuing observations (till 2016) show that NWIA aquifer has the world’s highest depletion rate.
Unlike the Americans, we could not use the satellites. The reason was technology – basically we needed access to precise GPS code for a GRACE like mission – and India’s GAGAN was then still on the drawing board. So we opted for mass pilot drilling projects to map the aquifers funded by World Bank.
First the types and extent of the major aquifers were identified. It was to have been expanded in the 12th (2013-2017) and 13th Five Year Plans. The 13th Five Year plan is kaput, thanks to Narendra Modi’s shutdown of Planning Commission and replacing it with Niti Aayog. So, right now, no one is sure whether the NAMP will progress further or not.
While we do not know the actual capacity – depth, volume, sustainable extraction capacity, interlinking and interaction within - of the Indian Aquifers, we do have a fair idea of ground water levels. Thanks to the budding NAMP programme, groundwater level measurement stations are now fairly distributed on the ground.
NAMP is the reason we find reports in the last few years about ground water levels falling below 200 or 500 feet in some areas, and almost every summer, dire warnings about sea water ingress into coastal groundwater, especially in Tamil Nadu.
You might ask what exactly has all this to do with Water Scarcity and Government Apathy. By any measure, it would appear the governments have actually woken up from 2012 and are on the job.
Actually, this is the primer, the foundation, for what the apathy or lack of foresight is all about.
Here is the animated GIF of the depletion of the North West India Aquifer between 2003 and 2008.
Hey keep posting such good and meaningful articles.
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