– Kulbhushan Upamanyu
Recently Cape Town, the capital of South Africa, has been declared waterless. This changed form of nature is a frightening message for the whole world. In the era of climate change, water supply is emerging as a challenge in itself all over the world. 71 percent of the earth is covered with water. 97 percent of the total available water is in the oceans, which is salty. Only three percent of the water is usable, of which 2.4 percent is in glaciers. Only 0.6 percent of water is in rivers, lakes etc. There is a total of 32 crore, 60 lakh trillion gallons of water on the earth. Water evaporates from the oceans and rains in the form of clouds. Only some of it stays on the earth in the form of glaciers and snow, river water, ground water, the rest flows back to the sea. The water that stagnates on the earth, remains fit for our use. Climate change is increasing the heat on the land and this is reducing the water held in the form of glaciers and snow due to the increase in the rate of melting of glaciers and snow.
Due to the rapid rate of glacier melting, according to the estimation, by 2050, the glaciers of the Himalayas will almost end. This will increase the dependence on groundwater. If the exploitation of ground water increases, the whole world will have to face a serious crisis. At present, 61.6 percent of the land in the country is dependent on ground water for irrigation, only 24.5 percent is irrigated by canals. The rest is irrigated by other traditional means. The situation is such that in about one-third of the districts of the country, permanent ground water reserves have also been exhausted. That’s why we should extract only that much ground water that is collected from recharge every year. Seeing this impending crisis, we should make ground water development programs and follow them.
In the case of ground water, we lacked laws that match the current techniques, and secondly, there was no systematic monitoring system. The 2005 law has filled this gap to some extent. Before that there was an 1882 law according to which anyone could tap groundwater from under their land. It is obvious that at that time there was no facility available for making energy powered deep wells. People used to exploit ground water from rehats, wells etc., due to which there was no possibility of any effect on the ground water level. Today, when it has become possible to drain ground water from below one and a half thousand feet, then it has become necessary to think.
With the development of geology, we have come to know that groundwater deposits can be interconnected for miles. This means that groundwater cannot be recognized as a personal right attached to private land. Ground water is a community resource. That’s why it should be managed in view of community interests. The present law has made way in this direction, but the poor system of implementing the provisions of the law on the spot is not going to work.
Let us understand this in the context of Himachal Pradesh. The exploitable groundwater in Himachal is 0.97 billion cubic meters annually, out of which only 0.36 billion cubic meters is being extracted. Till 2019, 39085 hand pumps have been installed in the state by Jal Shakti Department and 8000 irrigation wells have been constructed. But this figure is not reliable at all, because no one has any information about how many handpumps and irrigation wells are there without approval and registration. The 2005 law provided for five years in jail and a fine of up to Rs 10 lakh for installing tubewells in violation of rules. It has been amended to remove the prison sentence. This is a good step. But there should be a provision to shut down illegal ground water harvesting plants along with fine.
Discussion of unregistered contractors is also necessary. In 2019, there was a ban on new boring till further orders, but despite this the work of boring continued by such people. More than 50 percent handpumps installed in Bhatiyat tehsil are lying dry due to the decreasing ground water level. It is so in other places also. Natural water sources have dried up in many places due to over-exploitation. This will also affect the water level of small rivers and drains. It is also inconceivable that in 2017, the groundwater level in Indora, Kangra, Kala Amb, Sirmaur, Nalagarh and Una areas of Solan was more than the recharge capacity. These areas have also been declared safe in the post-2020 assessment. Whereas after that the level of exploitation has been increasing. It should be expected that the government will take serious initiative in this direction.
(The author is an environmentalist.)
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