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GROUNDWATER DEPLETION
Groundwater is part of the Earth’s water or hydrological cycle. When rain falls, a part infiltrates the soil and
the remainder evaporates or runs off into rivers. The roots of plants will take up a proportion of this moisture
and then lose it through transpiration to the atmosphere, but some will infiltrate more deeply, eventually
accumulating above an impermeable bed, saturating available pore space and forming an underground reservoir.
Underground strata that can both store and transmit accumulated groundwater to outlets in rivers, springs and
the sea are termed aquifers.
The water table marks the level to which the ground is fully saturated (saturated zone) and reaches the surface
at most rivers and all groundwater-fed lakes. Above the water table the ground is known as the unsaturated
zone. The productivity of an aquifer depends on its ability to store and transmit water, and these qualities may
vary. Unconsolidated granular sediments, such as sand or gravel contain pore space between the grains and thus
the water content can exceed 30 per cent of the volume. This is reduced progressively as the proportion of
finer materials such as silt or clay increases and as consolidation occurs, typically accompanied by cementation
of the grains. In highly consolidated rocks groundwater is found only in fractures and rarely exceeds 1 per cent
of the volume of the rock mass. However, in the case of limestone these fractures may become enlarged, by
solution and preferential flow to form fissures and caverns.
Groundwater is a critical resource in India, accounting for over 65% of irrigation water and 85% of drinking
water supplies. However, on current trends it is estimated that 60% of groundwater sources will be in a critical
state of degradation within the next twenty years.

Why is there Groundwater?

A couple of important factors are responsible for the existence of groundwater:
(1) Gravity
Gravity pulls water toward the center of the Earth. That means that water on the surface will try to seep into
the ground below it.
(2) The Rocks below the earth
The rock below the Earth’s surface is the bedrock. If all bedrock consisted of a dense material like solid granite,
then even gravity would have a hard time pulling water downward. But Earth’s bedrock consists of many types
of rock, such as sandstone, granite, and limestone. Bedrocks have varying amounts of void spaces in them
where groundwater accumulates. Bedrock can also become broken and fractured, creating spaces that can fill
with water. And some bedrock, such as limestone, are dissolved by water — which results in large cavities that
fill with water.
In many places, some layers have rocks that are more porous than others, and here water moves more freely
(in a horizontal manner) through the earth.
Gravity doesn’t pull water all the way to the center of the Earth. Deep in the bedrock there are rock layers
made of dense material, such as granite, or material that water has a hard time penetrating, such as clay. These
layers may be underneath the porous rock layers and, thus, act as a confining layer to retard the vertical
movement of water. Since it is more difficult for the water to go any deeper, it tends to pool in the porous
layers and flow in a more horizontal direction across the aquifer toward an exposed surface-water body, like
a river.
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Groundwater has some important characteristics in India:

• It is almost universally available, with variation in levels, quality and quantity.
• It is a common property resource as no single person or organization can own it.
• However, the way it is used, it has become a totally private property. According to current regime and legal
situation, those who own the land have total freedom to use as much groundwater as required.
• There is a dynamic equilibrium between rainwater, surface water bodies including ponds, wetlands, lakes,
rivers, tanks and groundwater. Forests and trees also are part of this system as both forests and trees play
crucial role in groundwater recharge.
• Many aquifers are also able to offer natural protection from contamination.
• Groundwater is usually cleaner and safer than its untreated surface water equivalent.
• Groundwater is relatively easy and cheap to use. It can be brought on-stream progressively with.
• Little capital outlay and boreholes can often be drilled close to where the water supply is needed.
• It is a resource that is organisationally easy to develop; individuals can construct, operate and control their
own supply, often on their own land.
• According to UNEP report, in 1990-93, India had world’s highest land under irrigation, at 50.1 m ha, which
consumed 460 BCM water, of which 41% came from surface water and 53% from groundwater.
• In India, the land irrigated by surface water has doubled between 1950 and 1985, but the area irrigated
from aquifers has increased by 113 time.
• Aquifers serve the important function in the hydrological cycle of storing and subsequently releasing water.
The water thus discharged from aquifer storage fulfils two major roles. First, it can benefit the environment
by naturally maintaining and sustaining river flow, springs and wetlands.
• Secondly, it can provide a valuable water supply to meet the growing demand for water for drinking and
domestic use, crop irrigation and industry.
• These different roles are a major task for those concerned with sustainable use of the Earth’s water
resources. In any part, where rainfall is scarce, groundwater may be the only source of freshwater available
and is, as a consequence, often heavily exploited.

Groundwater depletion in India

India’s declining groundwater resources are the product of a number of drivers. Utilization of groundwater
facilitates irrigated agriculture in areas far from rivers; in fact, this was key to the agricultural “green revolution”
that occurred from the mid 1960s. In places where surface water is available but unsafe for drinking or
farming—more than 70% of India’s surface water resources are polluted by human waste or toxic chemicals—
groundwater has often been seen as a safe alternative. Urban water supply infrastructure is often poor and
unreliable: well drilling is typically the most economical means of obtaining household water. In Delhi, the local
government estimates that 40% of the water transmitted through the mains system is lost through leakages;
for many, the only other alternative to bores are expensive supplies purchased from water-trucks.
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In rural areas, electricity subsidies allowing farmers to pump groundwater cheaply have become entrenched in
the political landscape. They are likely to become even more so as energy requirements increase to extract
water from greater depths. Low cost encourages excess water withdrawal, an inefficient usage pattern commonly
exacerbated by ineffective application methods and the wastage of agricultural produce between farm and
market. In order to feed a growing and wealthier population, it is projected that agricultural water demand in
India would get double to 1,200 billion m3 by 2030 if these inefficient practices continued. The state of
groundwater quality in India is a critical health issue.
For example, in Andhra Pradesh, a southern state of India, the groundwater in 26 of 46 mandals are characterized
as ‘overexploited’. India’s Central Groundwater Board cites as reasons for this stress increasing population,
deficient monsoons, unregulated wells, and economic pressures such as farmers’ dependency on loans for costly
agricultural inputs and fluctuations of product value on international markets. Poverty stricken sectors of
society cannot afford the technology required to compensate for dropping water tables. In some cases, farmers
have taken their own lives due to these compounding stresses. The direct connection of suicide to water
scarcity is not certain, for knowing the reason why any individual commits suicide is inherently difficult.
However, an epidemic of farmer suicides—3,000 reported incidents in Andhra Pradesh alone—has inflicted
many rural communities throughout the nation.
Further as wells are drilled deeper in pursuit of the falling water table, the water which is extracted frequently
displays higher levels of arsenic, fluoride, and other harmful chemicals. Falling water tables are also compounding
the fluorosis epidemic in India. Fluoride is a common component of geologic materials underlying much of
India. Fluorosis, a medical condition caused by over-consumption of fluoride, has health effects that range from
stiff joints to cancer. As groundwater levels continuously decline, villagers are forced to drill wells past safe
surface zones into the portions of aquifers that house toxic waters. India’s Fluorosis and Rural Development
Foundation now estimates 60 million people currently suffer some degree of the disease.
Human-induced declines in aquifer levels also break surface-groundwater hydrologic connections. In the
Maheshwaram watershed of Andhra Pradesh chronic depletion of groundwater has lowered the water table 15
m below the ground surface such that springs and streams formerly fed by groundwater have disappeared. The
traditional ‘tank’ system of collecting surface runoff used by Indian farmers for hundreds of centuries is also
disappearing. When subsurface soils and aquifers are at maximum water-holding capacity rainwater cannot
infiltrate and will thus collect along the surface of a landscape. Ancient canals and spillways that follow natural
drainage patterns direct seasonal floodwaters across the landscape into large reservoirs (tanks) semi-circumscribed
by earthen dams that Indian farmers use to store overflow collected during the monsoon season for use during
the dry season. However, as groundwater is extracted over time sub-surface storages are continuously depleted,
causing greater proportions of rainfall to infiltrate rather than run off the landscape into rivers and streams—
or tanks. The falling water tables are reducing the tank structures characteristic of India’s agrarian society to
archeological relics. Similarly, shallow wells that previously provided built in risk management during years of
monsoon deficits no longer intercept the water table.

Other Potential Threats to Groundwater

• Groundwater Contamination
Groundwater contamination occurs when man-made products such as gasoline, oil, road salts and chemicals get
into the groundwater and cause it to become unsafe and unfit for human use.
Materials from the land’s surface can move through the soil and end up in the groundwater. For example,
pesticides and fertilizers can find their way into groundwater supplies over time. Road salt, toxic substances
from mining sites, and used motor oil also may seep into groundwater. In addition, it is possible for untreated
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waste from septic tanks and toxic chemicals from underground storage tanks and leaky landfills to contaminate
groundwater.
Drinking contaminated groundwater can have serious health effects. Diseases such as hepatitis and dysentery
may be caused by contamination from septic tank waste. Poisoning may be caused by toxins that have leached
into well water supplies. Wildlife can also be harmed by contaminated groundwater. Other long term effects
such as certain types of cancer may also result from exposure to polluted water.
• Nitrates in Drinking Water
Nitrates are chemical compounds present in much of our drinking water. While harmless in small amounts,
high levels of nitrates can affect humans and animals negatively. This is especially true for infants and pregnant
women.
Nitrates infiltrate drinking water through several sources. Runoff from fertilizers is the most common source
of nitrates, but they may also come from improperly disposed sewage, leaking septic systems, industrial waste,
food processing waste, and erosion of natural deposits.
High levels of nitrate in the body can cause methemoglobinemia, also known as blue baby syndrome. This
sickness is extremely rare, but it is important to be aware of the risks.
The most common symptom of methemoglobinemia is a bluish color of the skin, headache, dizziness, weakness
or trouble breathing. Infants under six months of age, pregnant women, adults with low amounts of stomach
acidity, or adults deficient in the methemoglobin reductase enzyme (which converts methemoglobin to hemoglobin)
are especially susceptible.
The construction and location of drinking water wells often have the most to do with the amount of nitrates
in drinking water. New wells should be located uphill and at least 100 feet away from potential contaminant
sources like feedlots, septic systems, barnyards and chemical storage facilities. This simple act of prevention
can be invaluable to preventing nitrates from entering drinking water.
Some methods that should not be used to remove nitrates are boiling, filtering, chemical disinfection such as
chlorination, and water softeners.

• Waste disposal
Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) are a diverse group of chemicals including all human and
veterinary drugs; dietary supplements; other consumer products including fragrances, topical agents such as
cosmetics and sunscreens, laundry and cleaning products; and all the “inert” ingredients that are part of these
products.
Pharmaceuticals and personal care products are introduced to the environment as pollutants in a variety of
ways, including: excretion by humans and domestic animals; intentional disposal of unneeded PPCPs (flushing);
bathing or swimming; discharge from municipal sewage systems or private septic systems; leaching from
landfills; runoff from confined animal feeding operations; discharge of raw sewage from storm overflow events,
cruise ships, and some rural homes directly into surface water; accidental discharges to a groundwater recharge
area; loss from aquaculture; and spray-drift from antibiotics used on food crops.
The potential human health risks associated with minute levels of PPCPs in water in general and drinking water
in particular is still being determined. Until more is known, there is much the public health and environmental
protection community can do to educate the public about the risks and best practices concerning the use and
disposal of PPCPs, thus protecting drinking water sources.
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The solid, liquid, and the gaseous waste that is generated, if not treated properly, results in pollution of the
environment; this affects groundwater too due to the hydraulic connectivity in the hydrological cycle. For
example, when the air is polluted, rainfall will settle many pollutants on the ground, which can then seep into
and contaminate the groundwater resources. Water extraction without proper recharge and leaching of pollutants
from pesticides and fertilizers into the aquifers has polluted groundwater supplies.
• Social Problems
Be it urban or rural India, water supply and its quality is pathetic. 8,50,000 people in Lucknow stand in queues
for five hours to get water, with 2,50,000 of them waking up at 4 a.m. to do so. In Pune people pay Rs. 1,100
every alternate day, which works out to Rs.16,500 a month, for water supply by tankers. Bangalore gets eight
hours of water supply every alternate day in one-third of its total area; the rest fend for themselves with
depleting groundwater and tankers that charge Rs.5 per pot even in the slum areas. Hyderabad is even worse.
It gets piped water every other day for about two hours from 4 a.m. More than 3,00,000 families residing in
the newer localities of metropolitan Hyderabad are fortunate if water is supplied once in four or five days. They
end up spending huge sums on tanker supply. Over-reliance on underground water has led to decline in water
levels in some areas of Jaipur by five times in 15 years, from 100 ft to 500 ft. The state government,
meanwhile, continues to give the go-ahead to apartments and malls in areas where there is no water supply at
all.
On an average, according to Water Resources Ministry statistics, an individual uses 150-200 litres of water per
day in urban areas against a minuscule 20 litres a day in villages. The Union Government, however, has failed
to formulate a Central water policy for more than a decade.
Riots have broken out over borewell use, leading to death, imprisonment, deprivation and despair to families.

Groundwater Governance Framework in India

The legal system for groundwater management in India falls within a complex, multilayered framework of
constitutional and statutory provisions at the central and state levels. It is clear that groundwater management
falls under the jurisdiction of the states and to this effect the central government has circulated since 1970 a
model groundwater bill. Regretfully, only a few states have formally adopted it. Nevertheless, the two main
legal drawbacks (the resource being assumed to follow the right to land and the absence of groundwater
legislation at the central level) have been sorted out by:
• The Supreme Court and High Court rulings have affirmed the government’s right and obligation to protect
groundwater under the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution.
• The Planning Commission’s Groundwater Expert Group have argued that the legislative framework is
reasonably robust for effective groundwater management, so the priority lies in enforcement of existing
measures, supported by innovative approaches such as an expansion of community based-management.
• The Central Groundwater Authority (CGWA) and the Central Groundwater Board (CGB) (supported by
State Groundwater Boards, or SGBs) are the primary agencies for groundwater management. Albeit having
the potential to become champions of sustainable groundwater management the CGWA, CGB, and SGBs
are severely handicapped by their chronic understaffing and lack of coordination with a large number of
other government agencies impacting the resource.
The legal and institutional framework for groundwater protection is also complex. The Water (Prevention and
Control of Pollution) Act of 1974 and the Environmental (Protection) Act of 1986 deal with most pollution
issues in India, but there are thirteen other related policy and legal ordinances. The Central Pollution Control
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Board (CPCB)—and at the state level the SGWAs and SPCBs—are the main responsible agencies, but fourteen
other organizations also play a role. Within this framework, enforcement is not easy and state agencies are not
well-equipped.
Lacunae in the legal framework are compounded by organizational deficiencies and weak governance. All the
functions relating to water resources are vested with the government. These processes are neither transparent
nor subject to any public scrutiny. Those directly affected and civic society organizations do not have any
opportunity for participation or even consultation in these matters. Even the limited grievances and criticisms
they voice are ineffective for lack of access to relevant information. Another area of glaring failure of governance
is in the implementation of water resource programmes for both large scale projects and in local water supply
schemes, soil conservation, and watershed development. The use of contractors for construction of local works
is the normal practice. They are closely linked to, or proxies for, locally influential people, often party functionaries.
The procedures for award of contracts, inspections of implementation, and verification of works reported to
be complete are very lax. Mostly they do not even exist. Instances of incomplete works, works of poor quality,
and sometimes no work at all are numerous. Several instances have been reported in the press and documented
in some evaluation studies. No government has ever considered commissioning independent periodic verification
of specific works reported to be completed.

Steps need to be taken

Other than legislation and checks to conserve and improve the quality of groundwater, society itself plays a
very important role. During the last decade there has been a rising awareness among the common people on
the need for conservation and development of groundwater. Water use has to be integrated effectively with
water regeneration, as was done in many traditional technologies.
Renovation of forest tanks in drought-prone regions will have a significant impact on wildlife and forest cover.
Similarly, in some urban cities there is a need to regenerate groundwater aquifers because of the high degree
of dependence on them for drinking water. Rainwater harvesting schemes have been taken up in many cities
and even made compulsory in some of them. Temple tanks need to be renovated and urban wetlands protected.
All these will contribute to a rise in the groundwater level and a reduction of salt water ingress. Community
awareness and management of freshwater resources should be enhanced. The government should implement
effective groundwater legislation and regulations through self-regulation by communities and local institutions.
External support agencies should support freshwater resource management. Environmental restoration should
be promoted along with household water security.
Further for the sustainable development of groundwater resources, the first step is to carefully construct a
disaggregated picture by mapping aquifers and delineating aquifer typologies incorporating variations in
hydrogeological and socio-economic contexts. Ideally, aquifer mapping should take place at the scale of watersheds
of the order of 1,000 to 2,000 hectares. These maps can be then aggregated at a more regional scale rather
than move down from an aggregated picture. Along with mapping, we also need to build a comprehensive
database on the groundwater flow systems and groundwater availability in each hydrogeological setting. This
database should enable a real time monitoring of the status of groundwater use and implementation of
remedial measures in cases where the resource is threatened with depletion. Such efforts need to be dovetailed
with the Development of Water Resources Information System scheme (implemented by the CWC and ISRO),
which aims to put in place a web-enabled water resources information system. Eventually, we need to bring
this information support to the watershed and village-level, which could enable the village communities and
their institutions to take informed decisions about their water resources.
The Planning Commission’s Expert Group has spoken about the need for “adopting for all groundwater
management units a sustainable yield management goal, which means that average withdrawals should not
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exceed long-term recharge”. In other words, this goal is the absolute limit imposed by the nature of the resource
and which should not be violated. Disaggregated aquifer maps and database management system will make it
possible to determine this sustainable yield management goal for each aquifer and watershed in a given
hydrogeologic setting. This gives the quantum of groundwater available that is to be apportioned between
competing uses and users.
The next step, therefore, is to define a broad set of priorities of water use at an aquifer or watershed level
attempt to shape the existing use pattern to suit these priorities. This involves working out location specific
protocols and agreements within the user community for sustainable use of water. These protocols emphasise
drinking water security as their primary objective. Sustainable use of groundwater involves adoption of norms
related to enhancing recharge through protection of the recharge area, controlling the depth and spacing of
wells, regulating capacity and efficiency of pumps used, water-saving irrigation methods and overall regulation
of cropping pattern to rationalise water use in agriculture. Clearly, implementation of these strategies is not a
technical planning exercise. These are not fixed solutions frozen at a point in time, but rather an evolving set
of rules emerging from a continuous and active dialogue within the community of users. These rules are
facilitated and supported by a scientific understanding of the characteristics of the resource.
Backed by aquifer-level mapping and database support, several groundwater management pilots could be
initiated in different hydrogeological settings of the country. Each of these pilots could cover an area of 5,000
to 10,000 ha or boundaries of an aquifer, whichever is less. Some of these pilots could focus on the critical
and overexploited blocks of the country with the objective of drawing up a comprehensive programme of
aquifer management to address the crisis. The lessons learnt here could be scaled up to cover a larger number
of blocks later. For better results, these pilots sought to be designed so that they converge seamlessly into
ongoing programmes like MGNREGA, IWMP, artificial recharge, etc. Convergence with ongoing drinking
water and sanitation projects also becomes significant in this regard. The scourge of water initiatives in India
has been sectoral compartmentalisation, with very little interaction across sectors. This needs to be broken
down and then built up into a more robust manner of integrated thinking on water to emerge.
Also groundwater development should be coupled with management of rainwater and surface water. The
existing water resources and dug wells, ponds and streams should be protected and conserved. Rainwater
harvesting and artificial recharge schemes should be taken up on a massive scale. An essential part of management
of the resource is proper spacing of abstraction structures. The impact of artificial recharge to groundwater
shall be created mainly at the downstream side of the recharge structures. There is also need for creation of
awareness among the public on judicious use of groundwater resources and for capacity-building of stakeholders
at the grassroot level on various aspects of groundwater conservation and augmentation.
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