Finding Groundwater

Agriculture is of central importance to India’s economy with more than half of the workforce in the country depending on it for their livelihoods. However, it is increasingly being threatened due to climate-change-induced changing rainfall patterns and water scarcity having a negative impact on production.

A recent BBC report projected that Bengaluru will run out of water soon.

Hanumanthappa Ramanagar from Kushtagi taluka of Karnataka’s Koppal district has 15 acres of arid land with two deep wells on two sides of the land. One is a “very old” dug well and the other, a tubewell, is just 10 years old. Both were on the verge of going defunct two years ago. “There were many areas of land around us which were facing a similar fate.

Scanty rainfall, depleting groundwater levels, barren farmlands and mass migration of farmers to cities for better livelihood--this is the reality of most of rural India today. Many parts of India are witnessing this growing trend of farmers leaving their lands in search of jobs in cities.

Every year, thousands of villages in Maharashtra get affected by droughts. Experts say that the reasons for recurrent droughts include a lack of policy framework, technical knowledge and community participation as well as poor implementation of government programmes.

India has long undervalued one of its most precious resources—water. Today the country’s chronic mismanagement of water has led to drought in nearly 2,00,000 villages. According to the World Bank data, Indian farmers use almost 70 percent of the total groundwater that is drawn in the country each year. Shockingly, India uses more groundwater annually than China and the United States combined.

On October 22, 35-year-old Lallu Yadav was celebrating Govardhan Pooja, a Hindu festival celebrated after Diwali, in Panchkurha village, almost 22 kms from the district headquarters of Hamirpur in Uttar Pradesh.

The theme for the Conclave this year is “Water Use Efficiency: An Imperative for India” to highlight the imperative of water use efficiency in the industry, agriculture and urban contexts. 

The problem of Bengaluru’s water is well known.

As India celebrates 70 years of independence, the recent flooding in states like Assam and Gujarat and droughts in places like Tamil Nadu and Marathwada remind us that we still need to go far to achieve independence from water woes.