The Hindu Business Line : Concern over depletion of groundwater resources

New Delhi, Sept. 18 A new report by the Planning Commission has drawn attention to the fast depletion of groundwater resource nationwide which is getting intensified and more widespread over the years.

Releasing the report of the Expert Group on ‘Ground water management and ownership’ headed by the Planning Commission Member, Dr Kirit S. Parikh, here, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has said there is “an obvious urgency” about managing ground water in a sustainable way.

He said that ground water is an open access common property natural resource and anyone could bore a well and pump out water without limit, leading to “excessive extraction” and as a consequence the ground water table has gone down in many parts of the country. The report would be an input into policy formulation for the 11th Plan and would help in sustainable development of ground water in the country.

The report noted that the rate of extraction of ground water is escalating and in many blocks exceeds the rate of recharge leading to lowered water tables. About 28 per cent of blocks are now semi-critical or over exploited and the number of dark or over exploited assessment units has grown from 4 per cent in 1995 to 15 per cent in 2004.

It said over-exploitation of groundwater has supervened in agriculturally crucial States such as Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. “To the extent the depletion of groundwater raises demand for electricity, it undermines the viability of the power sector, as power for agricultural use is highly subsidised,” it said.

Recharge scheme

While artificial recharge of groundwater has been found to be useful, a recharge scheme implemented by the Centre in different parts of the country revealed recharging could be made much more effective by the use of scientific inputs and analyses. Even if the entire potential of recharge is utilised, shortage would occur, underscoring the need for limiting extraction.

In limiting extraction, the foremost thing to be addressed is the legal regime, the report said adding that under the extant regime, the landowner is given the right to capture an unlimited amount of groundwater from beneath land, without being liable for injury to adjacent landowners caused by excessive or harmful pumping.

Stating that global experience to make groundwater a national property has not been encouraging, it said that India with 19 million wells over a much large area, the option of declaring groundwater a government property is “not a sensible one”. Recent court rulings have stressed the role of State as the trustee of all natural resources, including groundwater.

Hence “the attempt must, therefore, be to balance landowner’s right to capture groundwater with the public interest in managing groundwater resources for all users, including the environment and to ensure that both the present and future needs of the communities dependent upon these resources are accounted for.”

Dr Parikh said the Group has emphasised the need for all States to introduce a modified groundwater legislation encompassing the role and responsibility of water user groups and the Government involvement of Panchayati raj institutions should be a key part of the strategy. The balance between individuals’ rights and the government’s obligations could be achieved by adopting all groundwater management units a sustainable-yield management goal, which means the average withdrawals should not exceed long-term recharge.

The report also suggests that the tools of indirectly regulating extraction such a fixing the energy charges beyond certain limit for agricultural uses or separating agricultural feeders and restricting electricity supply could be decided by individual State governments.