Groundwater Recharge

This manual produced by BIRD-K and DRDPR (GoK) provides the details of the Sachetana project that aims to provide safe drinking water to fluorosis affected populations through the adoption of innovative technologies for rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharge.

The project is being implemented through the Gram Panchayats of 60 villages from 4 taluks among three districts of Karnataka state over a period of five years (2006-11).

The objectives of the project include:

• Provision of safe drinking water through innovative rain harvesting structures
• Recharge of groundwater through excavation of percolation ponds
• Recharge of existing bore wells and direct recharge of aquifers
• Awareness generation activities to promote sustainable management and management of water resources and water harvesting structures.

The paper describes the methodology used in the groundwater resource estimation and the results of the latest country-wide assessment. In India, dynamic groundwater resources are estimated jointly by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and State governments at periodic intervals. The latest estimates of dynamic resources are based on groundwater resource estimation methodology-1997 (commonly known as GEC-1997). These estimations are widely used in formulating various groundwater development and management plans. The paper also discusses future strategies on groundwater resource estimations.

Use of rain water to recharge quickly the deep under ground water pockets

Present problem:

1. Due to urbanization, many a under ground water recharge/enrichment points have be closed/covered/blocked. So, % of water reaching the underground water pockets is reduced to a very great extent.
2. Bore wells are dug at a very large number to satisfy the increasing demand for water. Therefore, level of underground water table is going down alarmingly.
3. As  many the opportunities for the rain water to reach the underground level is blocked almost at all places, even with a little bit of rain, the water will run on the roads & cause artificial flood or water blocking at different points on roads or low laying areas of the Cities. Such floods are causing a lot of traffic jams/road mishaps.Rain water on the road is also damaging the durability of the TAR roads.

By using dried open wells, we can enrich the Underground water quickly.

In the good old days, open wells used to help the common man in fetching water for all purposes and specially the drinking water. Invasion of pump-sets and specially the deep bore wells have pulled the underground water indiscriminately. Therefore, the water table level of the underground water is continuously going down at a very alarming rate. This fall in the underground water table level has made many a very big and useful water wells dry up. Now they are not in use as people do depend on alternative source of water like bore well water or the tap water drawn from far off river water.

RAIN WATER HARVESTING AT CITY.
LET US MAKE PLANS TO PRESERVE WATER AND SAVE THE ROADS.
Water is an important and essential commodity to every one which is to be preserved.

AT CITIES.

 “We no longer worry about the rains. We now have the confidence to grow alternative crops even if the monsoon fails,” said Balaraju, a farmer in one of the most drought-prone and economically vulnerable regions of Andhra Pradesh in southern India.

The State sector scheme on artificial recharge to groundwater through dug-wells is under implementation over the first three years of the (current) XI Plan Period (2007-12), in 1180 over-exploited, critical and semi-critical blocks/ talukas/ mandals in seven states of the hard-rock peninsular region of India, namely Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The target beneficiary of the scheme are farmers who have privately owned wells, in their agricultural land.

A workshop on groundwater was organised by ACWADAM and Arghyam Trust in Pune in May 2009, that brought together several experts in the field, and explored diverse topics such as the importance of scale in groundwater resource planning and management, importance of aquifer typologies, participatory processes of groundwater management, groundwater regulation and groundwater linkages with watershed development, markets and policy matters.

The attempt of the workshop and research papers presented, was to highlight contemporary issues in groundwater management, and to look at it through the multiple lenses of hydrogeology, sociology, economics, livelihoods, environment, disasters and so on.