Groundwater

Featured Articles
April 6, 2021
Drinking water access to all in Bihar: Reach, benefits and challenges
Significantly reduced the daily drudgery of women in rural areas
The water requirement for the scheme is being fulfilled through borings, submersible pumps, and distribution pipelines implemented by the Department of Panchayati Raj, Government of Bihar. (Image: Sehgal Foundation)
March 23, 2021
Efforts towards skilling local communities in water management
Enhancing community based water resource management
Women are involved in the process of developing the water budget from a gender lens. (Image: Samerth)
March 18, 2021
Enhancing water security through responsible tourism
While tourism is on the threshold of expanding in India, water scarcity and quality issues could hinder progress. What could be the way out?
Water tankers cater to the needs of populations in tourist destinations in India (Image Source: India Water Portal)
March 9, 2021
Meandering waterways: the interconnectedness of people’s action on water availability
Water demand and availability cannot be viewed in isolation. It is rather an outcome of the whole set of actions that people undertake to improve their lives and enhance their livelihoods.
Improving water availability in Mogras. Image used for representation only (Image Source: WOTR)
March 3, 2021
Study detects high levels of arsenic in cooked rice in Bihar
Need to remove arsenic from the food chain and not just drinking water in endemic areas
Median excess lifetime cancer risk of 2 per 10,000 from food arsenic exposure in Bihar. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
March 2, 2021
Managing groundwater demand: the way forward
Substituting groundwater irrigation by canal irrigation will not help in maintaining the current levels of food production in India. Managing groundwater demand will, finds a study.
Groundwater, a valuable resource! (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Groundwater rights
(not verified) posted 5 months 3 weeks ago

What are the rights to groundwater of a landowner?

 
Creating a repository for India’s water resources data
WRIS provides a comprehensive, authoritative and consistent data on India’s water resources in a standardised national GIS framework. Amita Bhaduri posted 5 months 3 weeks ago

Water, a scarce natural resource fundamental to life, livelihood, food security and sustainable development is required in every sector i.e. domestic, agricultural, industrial and environmental. Its source is precipitation, the usual forms being rainfall, snowfall etc. These in turn build surface and groundwater resources in the form of rivers, lakes, ponds, glaciers, groundwater etc.
Remoteness of the observation sites poses a challenge in setting up the data collection instrument (Image: Pxfuel)
Data, data everywhere, but where?
Involving the community in a data framework with the right incentives will have the second-order benefit of the community becoming decision makers with respect to water use. Amita Bhaduri posted 6 months ago

A few of us did an exercise where we closed our eyes and thought of the first four words that came to our minds when we thought of water data in India. Here is what we came up with:
The seamless flow of data from one program to another can be enabled if a few principles are kept in mind (Image: José Manuel Suárez, Wikimedia Commons)
Data-driven ‘water and agriculture’ planning: The big picture
If data was better organized and available for download in more ‘user-friendly’ formats, its utilization would improve manifold. Amita Bhaduri posted 6 months ago

India is fortunate to have a rich tradition of public data collection and compilation.
The quality of our public data is highly variable, yet if analyses and interpretation are done keeping in mind some of the limitations, the datasets can be a precious resource at the meso and macro level. (Image: Pixabay)
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. Amita Bhaduri posted 6 months 1 week ago

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)
New groundwater guidelines prohibit industries and mining in over-exploited zones
Policy matters this week Swati Bansal posted 6 months 1 week ago

Revised guidelines for groundwater use notified
Centre issues revised guidelines for groundwater use (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
No improvement in the water quality of the Ganga during lockdown: CPCB
News this week Swati Bansal posted 6 months 1 week ago

Water quality of Ganga river remained grim during lockdown: CPCB
Ganga river at Kachla, Uttar Pradesh. (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
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 . Aarti Kelkar Khambete posted 6 months 2 weeks ago

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. Aarti Kelkar Khambete posted 6 months 3 weeks ago

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.
Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan a low impact, high expenditure scheme: CAG
Policy matters this week Swati Bansal posted 6 months 3 weeks ago

Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan had a low impact in making Maharashtra drought free: CAG
Deepening work in progress under the Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan (Source: Ravindra Pomane)
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