Volume 24, No.-4 Oct- Dec, 2009 Quarterly Journal of Central Ground Water Board Ministry of Water Resources Government of India Editorial Board CHAIRMAN Dr S.C.Dhiman Chairman, Central Ground Water Board MEMBERS Subrata Kunar Sushil Gupta Member (ED&MM ) Member(T&TT) Member (SAM) Member(SML) CGWB CGWB CGWB CGWB Dr A.K.Sinha Dr P.C.Chandra Dr Saumitra Mukherjee, Professor, Regional Director(Retd) Head, Department of Geology Department of Geology CGWB & Remote Sensing, University of Rajasthan, J.N.U, Jaipur New Delhi EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITOR Dr S.K.Jain Dr S.Shekhar Scientist-D Scientist-B CGWB, HQ, Faridabad CGWB, HQ, Faridabad Manuscript Processing Dr. S. Shekhar Shri. M.Adil Scientist-B Scientist-C CGWB, HQ, Faridabad CGWB, HQ, Faridabad * The status of members of the editorial Board is as on 01.02.2011 The Statement and opinions expressed by authors in this Journal are not necessarily those of the Government. Published by Chairman, Central Ground Water Board, Ministry of Water Resources, Bhu-Jal Bhawan, NH-IV, Faridabad-121 001 (Haryana). Contents of the “Bhu-Jal News” are freely reproducible with due acknowledgement. All Editorial correspondence in future may be addressed to Editor, “Bhu-Jal News”, Central Ground Water Board, Bhujal Bhawan, NH-IV, Faridabad-121 001 (Haryana). E-Mail : [email protected] Quarterly Journal Volume No.24 , Number 4, Oct- Dec,2009 Bhu-Jal News - Quarterly Journal of Central Ground Water Board with the objective to disseminate information and highlight various activities and latest technical advances in the field of Ground Water. InsideInsideInside Editorial Sl CONTENT Page No No 1. Towards Better Management Formof Ground IV Water Resources in India 1 B.M.Jha & S.K.Sinha (See Rule 8) 2. India’s Ground Water Irrigation Economy: The Challenge of Balancing 21 1 Place of CGWB, New Delhi-11. Livelihoods and EnvironmentPublication Tushaar Shah 2 Periodicity of its Quarterly Publication 3 Printer's Name A.D. Joseph On behalf of 3. Sustainable Groundwater DevelopmentCGWB through Integrated Watershed 38 Management for Food NationalitySecurity Indian Address CGWB, Jam Nagar House, Suhas P. Wani, Raghavendra Sudi and P.New Pathak Delhi-110 011. 4 Publisher's Name A.D. Joseph On behalf of 4. Community Driven Approach for ArtificialCGWB Recharge –TBS Experience 53 Rajendra Singh Nationality Indian Address CGWB, Jam Nagar House, New Delhi-110 011. 5. Sectoral Allocation and Pricing of Groundwater 57 5 Editor's Name A.D. Joseph V.Damle Nationality Indian Address Central Ground Water Board, CGO Complex, 6. Ground Water Management in CoastalNH-IV, Areas Faridabad-121 001 69 S.C. Dhiman & D.S.Thambi 6 Name and Address Govt. of India Publication. of individuals who own the newspaper 7. Ground Water Managementand partners in Alluvialor Areas of Punjab 74 Sushil Gupta share holders holding more that one percent of the 8. total capital. Ground Water Vulnerability Assessment – Challenges and Opportunities 82 Ravinder Kaur and K.G. Rosin I, A.D. Joseph hereby declare that the particulars given above are true to the best of my 9. Hydromorphogeologicalknowledge Microzonation and belief. to Infer Groundwater Potential and 93 Quality Saumitra Mukherjee, Satyanarayan Shashtri, Chander Kumar Singh and Amit Singh Chairman’s Page Bhujal News, our in-house esteemed journal is now entering into its 25th year of publication in 2010. Special volumes on important issues are being planned for publication during this year. The main objective of this journal is to disseminate the technical information as well as latest research in ground water. All efforts have been made including hosting the recent issues in the website of CGWB to ensure its wider reach. The importance of ground water in Indian economy & public health is well accepted & is influenced by social, environmental and economical considerations. Accurate assessment of ground water resources is of prime importance for further planning and management of this vital resources. Sustainable water management in India is fast becoming a necessity with the looming crisis over water resources in the country. It is a challenge for food security and livelihood of the population and the environment. Central Ground Water Board, the apex organisation on ground water sector in India, has come a long way in exploring the potential aquifers through various scientific techniques in the country. In addition the Board has provided assistance in disaster mitigation activities during Latur earthquake in 1993, Bhuj earthquake in 2001, Super cyclone in Orissa during 2000 and Tsunami hit coastal belt of Tamil Nadu & Kerala and Andaman & Nicobar Islands in 2004 by way of construction of tube wells for water supply. This issue is a part of Ground Water Session of 5th Asian Regional Conference on “Improvement in Efficiency of irrigation projects through Technology upgradation and better operation & Maintenance” , organised by INCID with CGWB, held on 6- 11th December 2009 at New Delhi. I am sure the readers shall be benefited from the selected papers published in Bhujal News. Dr S.C.Dhiman Chairman, CGWB Picture of Editor EditorialEditorialEditorial The present issue contains 9 selected papers presented under Ground Water Session of 5th Asian Regional Conference on “Improvement in Efficiency of irrigation projects through Technology upgradation and better operation & Maintenance” , organised by Indian National Committee on irrigation and drainage(INCID) held on 6-11th December 2009 at New Delhi. Jha & Sinha in their paper “ Towards better management of ground water resources in India” addressed the various strategies for ground water management in the country. Tushar Shah elaborated the India’s ground water irrigation economy since 19th century. S.P.Wani et.al detailed the issues of sustainable development and management of the groundwater resource through integrated watershed management (IWM) approach relative to food production and security. Shri Rajendra Singh through his paper outlines the community driven approach for artificial recharge using traditional techniques of water harvesting. Shri V.Damle emphasized through his paper about sectoral allocation and pricing of ground water. Dr Dhiman & Thambi have described the ground water management strategies in coastal areas. Shri Sushil Gupta addressed the ground water management issues in Alluvial areas of Punjab. Shri Ravider Kaur & K.G.Rosin through his paper attempts to illustrate the existing groundwater vulnerability assessment approaches and challenges for wide scale application under Indian conditions. Dr Mukherji, etal have discussed the hydrogeomorphological microzonation to infer ground water potential and quality in NCR Sincere efforts have been made to make this issue more informative and useful. It is hoped that findings of the papers in this issue will benefit our readers. Dr S.K.Jain Editor Towards Better Management of Ground Water Resources in India B.M.Jha Ex-Chairman, Central Ground Water Board S.K.Sinha Scientist- D, Central Ground Water Board Abstract Groundwater is the most preferred source of water in various user sectors in India on account of its near universal availability, dependability and low capital cost. The increasing dependence on ground water as a reliable source of water has resulted in indiscriminate extraction in various parts of the country without due regard to the recharging capacities of aquifers and other environmental factors. On the other hand, there are areas in the country, where ground water development is sub-optimal in spite of the availability of sufficient resources, and canal command areas suffering from problems of water logging and soil salinity due to the gradual rise in ground water levels. As per the latest assessment, the annual replenishable ground water resource of the country has been estimated as 433 billion cubic meter (bcm), out of which 399 bcm is considered to be available for development for various uses. The irrigation sector remains the major consumer of ground water, accounting for 92% of its annual withdrawal. The development of ground water in the country is highly uneven and shows considerable variations from place to place. Though the overall stage of ground water development is about 58%, the average stage of ground water development in North Western Plain States is much higher (98%) when compared to the Eastern Plain States (43%) and Central Plain States (42%). Management of ground water resources in the Indian context is an extremely complex proposition. The highly uneven distribution and its utilization make it impossible to have single management strategy for the country as a whole. Any strategy for scientific management of ground water resources should involve a combination of supply side and demand side measures depending on the regional setting. As far as ground water resource availability is concerned the share of alluvial areas covering Eastern Plain states of Bihar, Orissa (part), Eastern Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and North Western plain states of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Western Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh; is about 44% of the total available resource. However, these groups of states have overall development of the order of 43% and 98% respectively. In view of the marked difference in stage of ground water in these areas, there is a need to critically analyze the underlying factors responsible for the imbalances in terms of technical and socio-economic considerations. These should also be taken for consideration while formulating any comprehensive water resources