Ground Water Regulation in India

Ground Water Regulation In India
Introduction
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in

the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called
an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or
fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with water is called the water table.
Groundwater is recharged from the surface; it may discharge from the surface naturally
at springs and seeps, and can form oases or wetlands. Groundwater is also often withdrawn
for agricultural, municipal, and industrial use by constructing and operating extraction wells.
The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater is hydrogeology, also called
groundwater hydrology.
Typically, groundwater is thought of as water flowing through shallow aquifers, but, in the
technical sense, it can also contain soil moisture, permafrost (frozen soil), immobile water in
very low permeability bedrock, and deep geothermal or oil formation water. Groundwater is
hypothesized to provide lubrication that can possibly influence the movement of faults. It is
likely that much of Earth's subsurface contain some water, which may be mixed with other
fluids in some instances. Groundwater may not be confined only to Earth. The formation of
some of the landforms observed on Mars may have been influenced by groundwater. There is
also evidence that liquid water may also exist in the subsurface of Jupiter's moon Europa.
Groundwater is often cheaper, more convenient and less vulnerable to pollution than surface
water. Therefore, it is commonly used for public water supplies. For example, groundwater
provides the largest source of usable water storage in the United States, and California
annually withdraws the largest amount of groundwater of all the states. Underground
reservoirs contain far more water than the capacity of all surface reservoirs and lakes in the
US, including the Great Lakes. Many municipal water supplies are derived solely from
groundwater.
Use of groundwater has related environmental issues. For example, polluted groundwater is
less visible and more difficult to clean up than pollution in rivers and lakes. Groundwater
pollution most often results from improper disposal of wastes on land. Major sources include
industrial and household chemicals and garbage landfills, excessive fertilizers and pesticides
used in agriculture, industrial waste lagoons, tailings and process wastewater from mines,
industrial fracking, oil field brine pits, leaking underground oil storage tanks and
pipelines, sewage sludge and septic systems. Additionally, groundwater is susceptible
to saltwater intrusion in coastal areas and can cause land subsidence when extracted
unsustainably, leading to sinking cities (like Bangkok)) and loss in elevation (such as
the multiple meters lost in the Central Valley of California). These issues are made more
complicated by sea level rise and other changes caused by climate changes which will change
precipitation and water scarcity globally.
Water cycle: Groundwater makes up about thirty percent of the world's fresh water supply,
which is about 0.76% of the entire world's water, including oceans and permanent ice. About
99% of the world's liquid fresh water is ground water. [7] Global groundwater storage is
roughly equal to the total amount of freshwater stored in the snow and ice pack, including the
north and south poles. This makes it an important resource that can act as a natural storage
that can buffer against shortages of surface water, as in during times of drought.[8]
Groundwater is naturally replenished by surface water from precipitation, streams,
and rivers when this recharge reaches the water table.
Groundwater can be a long-term 'reservoir' of the natural water cycle (with residence
times from days to millennia), as opposed to short-term water reservoirs like the atmosphere
and fresh surface water (which have residence times from minutes to years). The
figure shows how deep groundwater (which is quite distant from the surface recharge) can
take a very long time to complete its natural cycle.
The Great Artesian Basin in central and eastern Australia is one of the largest confined
aquifer systems in the world, extending for almost 2 million km2. By analysing the trace
elements in water sourced from deep underground, hydro geologists have been able to
determine that water extracted from these aquifers can be more than 1 million years old.
By comparing the age of groundwater obtained from different parts of the Great Artesian
Basin, hydro geologists have found it increases in age across the basin. Where water
recharges the aquifers along the Eastern Divide, ages are young. As groundwater flows
westward across the continent, it increases in age, with the oldest groundwater occurring in
the western parts. This means that in order to have travelled almost 1000 km from the source
of recharge in 1 million years, the groundwater flowing through the Great Artesian Basin
travels at an average rate of about 1 metre per year.
Reflective carpet trapping soil water vapour:
Recent research has demonstrated that evaporation of groundwater can play a significant role
in the local water cycle, especially in arid regions. Scientists in Saudi Arabia have proposed
plans to recapture and recycle this evaporative moisture for crop irrigation. In the opposite
photo, a 50-centimeter-square reflective carpet, made of small adjacent plastic cones, was
placed in a plant-free dry desert area for five months, without rain or irrigation. It managed to
capture and condense enough ground vapor to bring to life naturally buried seeds underneath
it, with a green area of about 10% of the carpet area. It is expected that, if seeds were put
down before placing this carpet, a much wider area would become green.
Uses of Natural Resources: All natural resources, groundwater is the most extracted
resource in the world. As of 2010, the top five countries by volume of groundwater extraction
were India, China, the US, Pakistan, and Iran. A majority of extracted groundwater, 70%, is
used for agricultural purposes. Groundwater is the most accessed source of freshwater around
the world, including as drinking water, irrigation, and manufacturing. Groundwater accounts
for about half of the world's drinking water, 40% of its irrigation water, and a third of water
for industrial purposes.
Issues: Certain problems have beset the use of groundwater around the world. Just as river
waters have been over-used and polluted in many parts of the world, so too have aquifers.
The big difference is that aquifers are out of sight. The other major problem is that water
management agencies, when calculating the "sustainable yield" of aquifer and river water,
have often counted the same water twice, once in the aquifer, and once in its connected river.
This problem, although understood for centuries, has persisted, partly through inertia within
government agencies. In Australia, for example, prior to the statutory reforms initiated by
the Council of Australian Governments water reform framework in the 1990s, many
Australian states managed groundwater and surface water through separate government
agencies, an approach beset by rivalry and poor communication.
In general, the time lags inherent in the dynamic response of groundwater to development
have been ignored by water management agencies, decades after scientific understanding of
the issue was consolidated. In brief, the effects of groundwater overdraft (although
undeniably real) may take decades or centuries to manifest themselves. In a classic study in
1982, Bredehoeft and colleagues modeled a situation where groundwater extraction in an
intermontane basin withdrew the entire annual recharge, leaving ‘nothing’ for the natural
groundwater-dependent vegetation community. Even when the bore field was situated close
to the vegetation, 30% of the original vegetation demand could still be met by the lag
inherent in the system after 100 years. By year 500, this had reduced to 0%, signalling
complete death of the groundwater-dependent vegetation. The science has been available to
make these calculations for decades; however, in general water management agencies have
ignored effects that will appear outside the rough timeframe of political elections (3 to 5
years). Marios Sophocleous argued strongly that management agencies must define and use
appropriate timeframes in groundwater planning. This will mean calculating groundwater
withdrawal permits based on predicted effects decades, sometimes centuries in the future.
As water moves through the landscape, it collects soluble salts, mainly sodium chloride.
Where such water enters the atmosphere through evapotranspiration, these salts are left
behind. In irrigation districts, poor drainage of soils and surface aquifers can result in water
tables' coming to the surface in low-lying areas. Major land degradation problems of soil
salinity and waterlogging result, combined with increasing levels of salt in surface waters. As
a consequence, major damage has occurred to local economies and environments.
Four important effects are worthy of brief mention. First, flood mitigation schemes, intended
to protect infrastructure built on floodplains, have had the unintended consequence of
reducing aquifer recharge associated with natural flooding. Second, prolonged depletion of
groundwater in extensive aquifers can result in land subsidence, with associated infrastructure
damage – as well as, third, saline intrusion. Fourth, draining acid sulphate soils, often found
in low-lying coastal plains, can result in acidification and pollution of formerly freshwater
and estuarine streams.
Another cause for concern is that groundwater drawdown from over-allocated aquifers has
the potential to cause severe damage

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Ground Water Regulation In India

Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in

Reflective carpet trapping soil water vapour:

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