WATER GOVERNANCE
(iii) the potential, but poorly under-
Focus on Sustainable
Groundwater Management
Rajiv Sinha, Alexander L Densmore
The growing crisis in
groundwater availability in India
means that the time is ripe for a
paradigm shift in the way we
think about it. This article
reviews recent developments that
have opened up exciting
opportunities for change, and
makes suggestions to address
some of the shortcomings
of the past.
Rajiv Sinha (rsinha@iitk.ac.in) is with the
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur;
Alexander L Densmore (a.l.densmore@dur.
ac.uk) is with the Durham University, UK.
Economic & Political Weekly
EPW decEMBER 24, 2016
I
ndia, the largest agricultural user of
groundwater in the world, has seen a
revolutionary shift from large-scale
surface water management to wide-
spread groundwater abstraction in the
last 40 years, particularly in the North.
The Indo–Gangetic alluvial basin hosts
some of the country’s foremost agricul-
tural regions with irrigation predomi-
nantly provided by groundwater. As a
result, the region has become one of the
largest hotspots of groundwater deple-
tion in the world.
A mean rate of groundwater decline of
~4 cm/yr across the region and regional
depletion rates of ~20 Gt/yr have been
estimated from GRACE satellite gravity
measurements in North India (Rodell
et al 2009; Tiwari et al 2009; Chen et al
2014). A more recent estimate puts it at
205 km3/yr of groundwater abstraction
from the Indo–Gangetic alluvial plains,
with the rate increasing by 2–5 km3/yr
due to agricultural intensification (Mac-
Donald et al 2016). Another recent study,
in the Kosi basin in north Bihar, showed
an alarming decline in pre-monsoon
groundwater levels of several metres per
decade (Sinha and Gupta 2016), given
that the mean annual rainfall in this
region is ~1,200 mm. Estimates of the
total water demand for India for 2025
and 2050 are 843 and 1,180 km3/yr,
respectively, against the total avail-
ability of 1,006 km3/yr (Verma and
Phansalkar 2007).
These estimates do not, however, acc-
ount for the extremely uneven distribu-
tion of water availability across the dif-
ferent climatic regions of the country
(Narasimhan 2008). This means that
several regions will be water stressed
even earlier than 2025. Such an unsus-
tainable imbalance between demand and
supply may be further complicated by
(i) uncertainties in demands from a
burgeoning population; (ii) uncertainties
in rates of socio-economic growth; and
vol lI no 52
stood, effects of climate-driven changes
in the water cycle.
Groundwater in the Indo–Gangetic
alluvial basin is thought to be largely
hosted within buried, sandy former river
channels, which flowed through the
region in the geological past. A few of
these paleochannels have clear manifes-
tations on the surface, but most are
buried and their existence—as well as
their suitability as aquifer bodies—must
be inferred. Systematic and widely avail-
able data on the subsurface stratigraphy
of the alluvial plains of India are rather
fragmentary, making assessment of the
aquifer system, estimation of the water
resource and its evolution through time,
and the management of groundwater as
a scarce resource very challenging. A
recent initiative by the Ministry of Water
Resources to harness these paleochannels
for groundwater exploration (Valdiya
2016) would require their careful surface
and subsurface mapping. At the same
time, it would require some caution to
put this data in the public domain so as
not to accelerate the exploitation of
groundwater in an unregulated manner.
The growing crisis in groundwater
availability and the difficulties inherent
in assessing and managing such an un-
seen and common pool resource mean
that the time is ripe for a paradigm shift
in the ways we think about groundwater
in India (Ostrom et al 1999). Fortunately, a
number of recent developments—includ-
ing new insights from academic research,
new policy formulations, and bottom-up
approaches to groundwater manage-
ment—have opened up exciting oppor-
tunities for change. We review these de-
velopments below and make some con-
crete suggestions that would, in our
view, address many of the shortcomings
of the past.
Institutional Framework
Although this article is focused on
groundwater management, it is impor-
tant to reflect on the overall institutional
framework of water management in the
country. Most of the ministry’s surface
water management has traditionally
been looked after by the Central Water
Commission (CWC) whereas groundwater
53
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WATER GOVERNANCE
management has been done by the
Central Ground water Board (CGWB).
While surface water and groundwater
might at first glance appear to be quite
distinct entities that require very differ-
ent methods of assessment and manage-
ment, they are inextricably linked. Over-
exploitation of groundwater in the Indo–
Gangetic basin has seriously affected
the modern rivers draining the alluvial
plains, removing a critical source of non-
monsoonal water input, and leading to
increasingly ephemeral flows. Thus, any
effort towards rejuvenation of rivers will
not succeed without a detailed spatial
understanding of groundwater flow and
recharge.
The investments, resources, and man-
power available in the CWC are currently
an order of magnitude greater than
those in the CGWB, mainly because of
the huge emphasis we have put on sur-
face water management and irrigation
projects over the last six decades. Today,
however, groundwater accounts for
~80% of the country’s total water sup-
ply and about ~60% of the net irrigated
area, double of what is provided by sur-
face water resources. To redefine water
resource management and the roles of
the CWC and CGWB, the ministry consti-
tuted an expert committee headed by
Mihir Shah. The committee has made a
strong case for restructuring the CWC
and CGWB to face the challenges of water
security and have suggested major reforms
in both organisations (Shah 2016). They
note a significant lack of resources, man-
power, and modern approaches to ground-
water management, and strongly advocate
participatory groundwater management
for implementing the National Project on
Aquifer Management (NAQUIM).
In our opinion, an integrated app-
roach to water management requires
that the CWC and CGWB be invested with
equal authority and parity in terms of
trained manpower and resources. Con-
stituting a National Water Commision
(NWC) is a welcome recommendation,
but this must be preceded by an order-
of-magnitude improvement in the coun-
try’s groundwater expertise. Ground-
water management, in particular, must
be supported by both the data needed
to make informed decisions, and the
54
training to make the best use of those energy, and urban development to ensure
data. Training must encompass modern synergy in developmental plans.
concepts of groundwater systems and
their evolution, including up-to-date Scientific Issues
methods and models for aquifer charac- Strategies to assess and counter the
terisation, groundwater dating and iso- adverse effects of overexploitation of
topic characterisation, and groundwater surface and groundwater resources and
flow modelling across a range of scales climate change impacts are needed urg-
from local to regional. ently as these effects threaten the social,
At the same time, participatory app- economic, and environmental systems.
roaches to groundwater resource asse- Evolving effective management systems
ssment and management need to be pro- to address these threats will, however,
moted to increase awareness about its be a long-term process requiring both
usage and to incorporate local knowl- sustained political commitment and
edge and practice in developing long- improvements in basic data and scientif-
term management plans. There are some ic understanding. Several fundamental
excellent examples of small-scale partic- scientific questions need to be first ans-
ipatory schemes that have pioneered new wered before a sustainable groundwater
ways of approaching groundwater ab- management strategy can be formulated
straction and recharge. Such schemes for a system like the Indo–Gangetic
need to be encouraged, supported, and alluvial basin—(i) What is the spatial
tried out elsewhere. distribution of groundwater depletion?
Further, scientific knowledge of the (ii) What are the sources and residence
groundwater system has significantly in- times of groundwater in different parts
creased in the academic world, and it is of the system? (iii) How are aquifer
time for this to have an effect. For this, bodies distributed in the subsurface, and
partnerships and collaboration between what controls this distribution? (iv) How
the government departments and aca- connected are the aquifers, and how
demic institutions must be promoted has connectivity changed in recent
and strengthened. Integrated basin man- geological time?
agement requires combined expertise in Answering these questions will require
surface and groundwater science and cooperation among the CGWB, state
engineering along with other specialisa- groundwater boards, and academic in-
tions such as social science, geomorpho- stitutions, who must collectively address
logy, agricultural science, ecology, and the following issues.
economics. It is natural that bodies such
as the CGWB may not have access to such (a) Data collection, archiving, and
a range of disciplines and the latest de- visualisation: One of the most critical
velopments in terms of tools and tech- requirements in groundwater manage-
nology. Therefore, it is critical to develop ment is to have accurate and easy-to-
long-term partnerships and collaborations access data sets on groundwater levels
with academic institutions, and with other and aquifer characteristics. The CGWB
related ministries such as agriculture, and state groundwater boards collect
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Economic & Political Weekly
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decEMBER 24, 2016 vol lI no 52 EPW

excellent and comprehensive data sets,
but these are not filtered, processed,
archived, or combined in any integrated
way for proper and accurate assessment
of groundwater level changes. The same
is true for borehole data which are again
available from different agencies but
cannot easily be integrated with water-
level changes for groundwater resource
assessment. The implementation of the
NAQUIM project will require a uniform
protocol for data integration, process-
ing, and visualisation, and a serious
effort is required to build this frame-
work. Some promising steps in this
direction have recently been developed
using the geomorphic framework of the
aquifer system as a means of organising
and relating a wide range of data sets
(Van Dijk et al 2016a).
(b) Training and capacity building: In
general, scientists from the CGWB and
the state boards have excellent funda-
mental knowledge of hydrogeological
concepts. Augmenting this with recent
developments in groundwater science,
including integration of remote sensing
and geographic information systems
(GIS), geomorphology, stratigraphy, and
stable isotope analysis, can only help to
yield more reliable groundwater resource
assessment in alluvial aquifers. Globally,
such integrated approaches have provid-
ed valuable insights for understanding
groundwater structures and dynamics,
and there is tremendous scope for capac-
ity development in specific areas.
(c) Research and development: It is
equally important to build national cap-
acity for research and development in
groundwater science. Centres of excel-
lence in groundwater, based at academic
institutions, should be set up to host ex-
perts from India and overseas. Such cen-
tres should aim to bring together scien-
tists, planners, and water-related com-
munity groups and non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) to develop sustain-
able strategies for groundwater manage-
ment. The centres could also develop
joint projects with the CGWB and state
boards in strategic areas of groundwater
research, including the dynamics of
shallow exploited aquifer systems, deep
Economic & Political Weekly
EPW decEMBER 24, 2016
groundwater resource assessment and
modelling, and community partnership
approaches to groundwater management.
Finally, the centres could act as beacons
for national and international outreach
and public awareness.
Policy Recommendations
Based on recent developments in ground-
water science, we propose a series of
specific policy recommendations for its
sustainable management in the Indian
context.
(a) Replace state boundaries with aqui-
fer boundaries in the compilation of aq-
uifer and groundwater level data, and
adopt a geomorphic framework to guide
interpretation of alluvial aquifer charac-
teristics, water level changes, and pro-
posed management strategies;
(b) Integrate all available groundwater
data from the CGWB and state ground-
water boards into an up-to-date, dynamic,
and user-focused database for water
levels;
(c) Update the ways in which sub-
surface aquifer data are combined and
analysed to include statistical analysis of
aquifer-body thickness and stacking pat-
terns, proper accounting of lateral hete-
rogeneity, and probabilistic stratigraphic
maps (Van Dijk et al 2016b) as an alter-
native to deterministic aquifer maps with
hard (but highly uncertain) boundaries;
(d) Require registration of all tube well
locations, proper estimation of tube well
numbers and densities as matters of pub-
lic record, and a move towards legalisa-
tion of groundwater usage for a realistic
estimation of tube well densities and
abstraction rates;
(e) Develop capacity for subsurface
aquifer analysis and characterisation to
incorporate aquifer-body mapping into
a more integrated understanding of
groundwater dynamics.
Conclusions
The rapid draw down of groundwater in
many parts of the country, particularly
in the alluvial plains, indicates that the
management of alluvial aquifers in India
needs a serious rethink. There have been
major advances over the last decade in
our understanding of how the basic
framework of these major aquifer systems
vol lI no 52
WATER GOVERNANCE
is constructed, but these advances have
not yet been used to refine groundwater
assessment and management strategies.
The integration of modern tools, such as
remote sensing and GIS and stable iso-
tope analysis, combined with a more sci-
entific approach involving geomorphic
and stratigraphic mapping, made possible
by the wealth of data held by the CGWB
and state groundwater boards as well as
the advent of new technologies of ter-
rain mapping, is a promising but under-
explored approach.
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