Rains do little to salvage groundwater levels
Pulkit Vasudha
Ahmedabad, July 24: The past five years have seen good rains in the state but not good enough in terms of groundwater replenishment. The rate at which groundwater is being replenished is much slower than the rate at which water is being consumed in most parts of the state.
The latest report, which assessed the groundwater situation in 223 talukas in the entire state categorised 69 talukas in a semi-critical condition, 12 in a critical condition and 31 as over-exploited. Ahmedabad, Banaskantha, Junagadh, Kutch, Patan, Mehsana and Sabarkantha figure both in the critical and over-exploited list of talukas.
“The groundwater levels in northern Gujarat are depleting at an alarming rate,” said Anoop Nagar, acting Regional Director of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) in Ahmedabad. Despite the good monsoon in the last five years, areas such as Patan, Ahmedabad, Mehsana, Banskantha and parts of Kheda have shown a dip in groundwater levels.
“Apart from the monsoons, the soil quality and groundwater demand are the other important factors that affect groundwater tables,” said Nagar.
The reserves of south Gujarat, on the other hand, have seen a significant rise due to the combined effect of plenty of rains, good network of canals, irrigation systems and availability of surface water. The CGWB, which performs a quarterly assessment of groundwater in the state, has reported an overall rise in groundwater levels in Gujarat. In the last one year, the maximum rise of over 18 metres has been noted in Sihori village in Banaskantha whereas the maximum decline of 32 metres has been observed at Suraj in Mehsana district. The average rise of the state is 2.45 metres.
According to the CGWB report of January 2007, 71 percent of the wells monitored in the last 10 years have shown a rise in water levels. Over one-fourth of Saurashtra and north Gujarat have seen a rise of 4 metres or more in groundwater levels. The central and eastern parts of Kutch have seen a general decline of 4 metres or more in the last decade.
As a result, people in the critical regions of north Gujarat are forced to dig deep to get water. While in most areas of Mehsana, water will be available at a depth of 109 metres, in the critical areas, tubewells have to be sunk up to 156 metres. In contrast, except in certain critical areas such as Vadodara, water is easily available at a depth of 30 metres.
Source: Indian Express