In India groundwater is rapidly getting depleted due to various reasons.
Union and State governments are taking various measures in this regard.
What is the status of groundwater depletion in India?
Central Ground Water Board (CWGB) has conducted a study on Rapidly-depleting groundwater in 6584 blocks across the country.
The CWGB assessment shows that groundwater in 1,034 of 6,584 blocks were over-exploited.
More water was being drawn out annually than was being recharged.
Further 934 blocks suffered from different stages of groundwater depletion.
Tamil Nadu had the most number of over-exploited blocks but Punjab was the worst in percentage terms with over 75% of its assessed blocks falling in the over-exploited category.
Other worst affected states were Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.
What are the measures taken by the union government?
Government of India has planned to implement a Water Conservation scheme Atal Bhoojal Yojana, with a fund of Rs.6,000 crores.
Under this scheme, ground water will be recharge and hence it will provide sufficient water for the use of agriculture purposes.
This scheme will also revive the water bodies like rivers so that the level of ground water can be increased especially in the rural areas.
The fund for this project will be raised by the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank.
What are the measures taken by Punjab government?
Punjab governments initially nudged the state’s farmers into increasing paddy acreage by providing nearly-free electricity for pumping out groundwater and backing intensive MSP-driven procurement of paddy harvest.
Now the Punjab state government is looking at steps to reduce the cultivation of water-intensive paddy.
Recently the government has launched a pilot project in three villages under which digital meters will be installed on tube wells belonging to nearly 1,000 farmers in the three villages.
Instead of compensating the state discoms for free power supply, the state will deposit certain amount of money in the accounts of the farmers.
The farmers will be billed directly by the Discom on the basis of actual consumption.
The state has entered into an agreement with experts from the World Bank, Punjab Agricultural University and various state departments.
These agencies will estimate the actual power use by farmers and how it might change following the direct benefits transfer (DBT).
If the actual costs for farmers surpass the DBT amount, it is possible that farmers might rethink their paddy preference.
