Deep Aquifers

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July 29, 2021
Demystifying groundwater for collective action
Experiences from participatory groundwater management efforts in Maharashtra
Unless work on managing the demand is undertaken, the notion of ‘infinite’ groundwater will be hard to address. (Image: Rucha Deshmukh, ACWADAM)
December 4, 2019
Looking back into history to understand droughts
The 2015­-2018 drought, the longest, but less severe of droughts experienced by India raises alarm on the negative effects of future droughts on water security in the country.
India will see more droughts in the future. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)
October 25, 2019
Mapping Pune’s aquifers
Groundwater use has doubled in Pune. Comprehensive mapping of groundwater resources and better management and governance is the need of the hour.
Groundwater, an exploited resource (Image Source: India Water Portal)
October 1, 2019
From droughts to floods: India’s tryst with climate extremes
Deconstructing the traditional narrow engineering based policy discourses around floods and droughts and connecting them to social and cultural realities is the need of the hour in India.
Water talk Series at Mumbai (Image Source:Tata Insitute of Social Sciences)
September 30, 2019
The Water Future Conference in Bangalore: Towards a Sustainable Water Future
The recently concluded 4 day conference in Bangalore looked at the current state of global water resource challenges & future pathways to achieve the SDGs, while ensuring equity in access to all.
Charles Vorosmarty, Chair, COMPASS Initiative, Water Future at the opening plenary on advanced water system assessments to address water security challenges of the 21st century.
September 13, 2019
How to restrict crops to geographically sustainable areas: The case of arecanut in Tumkur
Arecanut farmers in Karnataka are reeling from dipping groundwater levels and infrequent water supply for irrigation. In this article, some solutions are proposed.
Young arecanut trees grown in drylands of Tumkur region (Gubbi Taluk, Hodalur Village) Pic Credit: Chandana Eswar
Need for demand-side management: From the lens of participatory groundwater management
To successfully implement PGWM, there is a need to understand groundwater science from a community perspective.
Jaya Shukla
Posted on 16 Mar, 2022 07:27 AM

The word Kachch is derived from the Gujarati word ‘Kachha’, meaning tortoise, from which the drought-prone district of Kutch gets i
Arid Communities and Technologies (ACT) is a professional voluntary organization based at in the arid region of Kutch. One of its core areas of work is the implementation of innovative projects like community aquifer management. (Image: Vikalp Sangam)
Demystifying groundwater for collective action
Experiences from participatory groundwater management efforts in Maharashtra
Dhaval Joshi
Posted on 29 Jul, 2021 03:06 PM

India is the largest user of groundwater in the world. Agriculture, rural and urban domestic water supply and increasingly industries are shaping the dependency on groundwater.
Unless work on managing the demand is undertaken, the notion of ‘infinite’ groundwater will be hard to address. (Image: Rucha Deshmukh, ACWADAM)
Scientific closure of abandoned bore wells
How to plug or decommission an abandoned or defunct bore well to prevent contamination in the nearby productive wells
Murali Kochukrishnan
Posted on 22 Jul, 2021 01:58 PM

Why de-commission defunct or failed bore wells?
Well decommissioning is necessary to permanently fill in and seal a well to eliminate the well as a source of water (Image: Asadwarraich, Wikimedia Commons; CC BY-SA 4.0)
Digital tool to monitor groundwater
Women in Rajasthan use a groundwater monitoring tool to record water levels and promote water literacy
Foundation for Ecological Security (FES)
Posted on 28 Feb, 2021 09:41 AM

According to a 2006 report by the Inter-Agency Task Force, titled ‘Gender, Water and Sanitation’
Women use an open source groundwater monitoring tool that enables collection of water level data of wells and its collation on a web platform for easy access by all. (Image: FES)
Groundwater recharge needs grassroots solutions: A study of two techniques in Kerala
Although groundwater is emerging as a critical issue and has managed to encourage new government schemes, a generic solution of rainwater recharge cannot be applied across different regions.
Abhinav Madhavanunni
Sai Rama Raju Marella
Posted on 09 Oct, 2020 12:42 PM

In Kerala, around half the urban population and 80% of the rural population depend on open wells on their domestic water needs. But in the last decade, the majority of observatory wells recorded an average annual decline of half a meter.
Rainwater is captured from the rooftop of the community hall and diverted to the sump before it is pumped into the open well. (Image by Authors)
Water wisdom of the Gonds of Garha Mandla
A peek into history shows how the Gonds of Garha Mandla managed their water needs with great ingenuity and wisdom by constructing and maintaining water tanks .
K G Vyas
Posted on 03 Oct, 2020 05:11 PM

The Gond dynasties mainly flourished in the Central highlands of India. This region includes Sagar, Bhopal, and nearly half of Narmada valley, including the flanks of Vindhya and the Satpuda mountain ranges of southern Madhya Pradesh. The principal states of the Gonds were Garha-Mandla (1300 to 1789), Devgarh, Kherla and Chanda.
Kolatal, a traditional tank in Garha region of Jabalpur (Image Source: K. G. Vyas)
Where does the water in a well come from?
In the water sector, the focus on fixing demand and supply is taking us away from the real problem - the unnoticed groundwater dependencies in ever-expanding urban India.
Rachita Vora
Smarinita Shetty
Posted on 29 Sep, 2020 12:58 PM

The environment versus development debate has increasingly become more polarised, with discussions in the public domain revealing a stark contrast of views. Development has increasingly come to symbolise ‘doing something’ and ensuring ‘visible outputs’, largely in the form of infrastructure.
An open well in Maharashtra (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos) Image used for representational purposes only.
Uttarakhand: Reaching the unreached
PSI addresses the shortage of safe drinking water in remote Uttarakhand villages through a participatory community-based approach to springshed management.
Puran Bartwal
People’s Science Institute
Posted on 11 Sep, 2020 07:48 PM

People in remote hamlets left out by previous schemes like Swajal and Sector Wide Approach Program of the Uttarakhand Jal Nigam and Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan longed for household-level piped water supply for drinking and domestic purposes.
Women trudged long distances daily to fetch water for their basic household needs in Rupail (Image: People's Science Institute)
Drying veins of Ganga: Can we have ‘Nirmal Ganga’ with dying tributaries?
There is an urgent need to prioritise uninterrupted river flow over unpolluted flow in the Namami Gange programme.
Adeel Khan
Praharsh Patel
Posted on 27 Aug, 2020 05:22 PM

India’s Himalayan rivers have been a cradle of civilisational development and a centre for faith and culture for ages. Ganga being a fertile basin has been a significant contributor to our agricultural economy as well as our river-based agrarian development.
The Baand river is nearly dry even when the region saw above normal monsoon this year. Much of the riverbed is encroached by farms. (Image: Adeel Khan and Praharsh Patel)
Understanding Atal Bhujal Yojana through the program guidelines
The program envisages promoting panchayat led groundwater management and behavioural change with a primary focus on demand-side management.
Manisha Shah
Nikita Deshpande
Posted on 10 Aug, 2020 03:59 PM

Groundwater fulfills the drinking water requirements of nearly 85% and 50% of the rural and urban Indian population, respectively. 65% of the total irrigated area utilizes groundwater. It also caters to the water needs of the industrial sector in India.
Community participation is expected to facilitate bottom-up groundwater planning process to improve the effectiveness of public financing and align implementation of various government programs on groundwater in the participating states (Image: Water Alternatives, Flickr Commons)
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