Protecting Groundwater Resources in India: Looking Beyond the Unknown

Groundwater resources are the lifeline of India’s rural water supply. Nearly 95% of rural population depends upon groundwater for its domestic needs. On one hand this dependency underscores the importance of groundwater but on the other it also demands a careful articulation of groundwater management strategies. India is one of the leading groundwater users in the world. Groundwater over-abstraction and groundwater contamination together have led to a high level of vulnerability across some 60% of India’s districts. A high level of groundwater vulnerability calls for groundwater management that includes supply and demand side interventions. At the same time, in order to match supply and demand, resource understanding becomes imperative. The current levels and scales of hydrogeological information are too gross to gain accurate insights into aquifer conditions prevailing across a diverse hydrogeological landscape. Current levels of vulnerability call for strategic mechanisms of protecting groundwater resources with regard to drinking water security. Protecting groundwater resources from impacts of exploitation and contamination requires three basic components. 1. An accurate understanding of groundwater in an area, the scale of such understanding depending upon which of the 7 hydrogeological settings such an area falls under. 2. Participatory approaches (including social norms) to groundwater management including the match between hydrogeologic, hydrologic, administrative / community boundaries. 3. Robust legislation that moves beyond the command and control type, and is aligned with participatory mechanisms of groundwater management. Integrating all the above into a groundwater governance structure requires different aspects of science, ranging from delineation of aquifers, mapping of groundwater and other associated elements and drafting legislation and policies that are in tune with the science, and are easy to implement on the ground.