Ground Water Management: A Key Driver For Water Sustainability

Climate change debates and the associated threats are occupying centre-stage in both regional and global contexts, demanding swift action in the face of alarming data.

The changing climate has led to increased unpredictability of ground water resources, which makes it hard to manage water resources in sustainable ways.

In India, pivotal factors supporting the achievement of Safe Water and Sanitation (SDG 6) at the national level encompass the inception of the Swachh Bharat Mission in 2014 and the establishment of the Ministry of Jal Shakti in 2019. These initiatives have launched various programs aimed at addressing SDG 6 priorities, notably the Har Ghar Jal Yojana in 2019, among others.

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However, there still remains an urgent need for a more human-centric approach to understand on-ground challenges and for meaningful solutions to emerge.

In fact, the government of India launched the Atal Bhujal Yojana (2019) with a specific focus on improving ground water management in constituencies with higher ground-water depletion, through a community-led approach. It is also important to understand that while the problems are global, the actions for water management have to be local. Specifically, actions must emerge from a contextual understanding of the problem.

Navigating Critical Challenges in Groundwater Management

The source of all our fresh-water resources is rainfall and this water is stored on the surface (dams, ponds, reservoirs, etc.) or underground (aquifers).

The groundwater stored in aquifers is a common pool resource, with 70 to 80 percent being used for agriculture; 10 percent for domestic consumption (drinking water, cooking and washing) and roughly 20 percent being used by industry.

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So, how does one manage this common pool of groundwater resource to serve multiple needs?

This is a zero-sum game. Groundwater is a renewable, but finite resource. Being underground makes it harder to allocate groundwater to different sets of users in an equitable and sustainable manner.

Additionally, two related issues need to be considered: Protecting the source of the groundwater from contamination and physical damage; and implementing water security, given the available evidence of depleting groundwater levels in aquifers from excessive use of it in irrigation. Thus, the problem of groundwater management has to be understood and managed.

Climate change worsens water availability by altering rainfall patterns. Extreme weather events disrupt predictability and sustainable water resource management.

The problem also gets compounded due to climate change, which changes the spatial and temporal availability of water due to changes in the intensity of rainfall.

Investment in surface infrastructure including dams, etc. is a less economical solution and leads to more evaporation losses. Underground storage is a much more natural process, but identifying the recharge areas that help in underground storage is difficult.

Also, increased rainfall leads to a multitude of problems, that have social and demographic impacts. Rain during harvest can completely ruin crops, just as droughts can have irreversible effects on the eco-system. Increased rainfall leads to more events that trigger distress migration; people abandoning agriculture and there are multiplier effects on livelihoods.

Capacity building, community participation critical for groundwater governance

Governance of water is critical at the ground level and requires multi-stakeholder engagement.

Groundwater is a common pool resource and fragmented governance mechanisms can cause problems. For allocation to be equitable community participation is vital. With multiple uses and users, the various stakeholders need to come together for its management, with the specific needs being managed locally, to prevent the tragedy of the commons.

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Local ownership of solutions is imperative for sustainability of the action schemes. A shift from infrastructure to services will require identification of the right team locally, incentivizing their sustained engagement and accountabilities at the local institutions (the Panchayati Raj Institutions for example).

Sustainable water management at the ground level requires a strong, responsible, motivated, and interoperable workforce across time and contexts. A digital registry of service providers would also help access a continuous skill pool, while incentivizing their continued growth through capacity development and visibility. More investment must flow in from the public and private sector for bottom-up capacity development.

We also need a strong institutional model for water governance, with accountabilities measured to ensure source sustainability. Demand management (conservation) is critical in water stressed areas that needs to go hand in hand with supply augmentation (increasing water availability).

Funds and resources are also required for capacity building both in terms of quality and quantity, and general support for service providers in visible and measurable ways. Access to an accurate data pool is also required at a state level and local level so that meaningful insights can be generated for agile decision-making, as opposed to just focusing on compliance alone.

Access to safe water and sanitation is a basic human right, but over two billion people lack even basic access to safe drinking water and services. Accelerating the efforts to solve the water and sanitation crisis is thus imperative with ground water management being a key issue that needs our concerted efforts and collective action.

Bishwadeep Ghose, Country Director, Water for People, India

Payyazhi Jayashree, Board Member, Water for People & Dean, School of Business, University of Wollongong in Dubai