DETERIORATING GROUND WATER QUALITY

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National Seminar of Technical Experts in Rural
Water Supply Sanitation 25th July 2008
Issues on Rural Water Supply in
India A.Bhattacharyya Joint Secretary
Department of Drinking Water Supply
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Water

• Builder
• Purifier
• Diluter
• Divider

Catch every drop of water that is falling on Earth
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Ground water development in India

• Traditionally rural water supply systems are
  based on ground water sources (more than 85)
• About 85 of the ground water sources are drawn
  for irrigation and rural drinking water draws
  hardly 3
• Ground water development in Delhi, Haryana,
  Punjab Rajasthan is more than 100 and in
  States of Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and
  Uttar Pradesh it is more than 70. (CGWB report
  2006)
• Causing imbalance between over-withdrawal of
  ground water and deficit recharge
• Resulting permanent fall in the water table every
  year to the tune of 2 -3 meters

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Ground Water Usage

• Cleary indicates that drinking water is a very
  small consumer of both the surface and ground
  water and it is primarily due to extensive and
  indiscriminate use for agriculture .
• Comprehensive management and conjunctive use of
  both surface and ground water, incorporating both
  quality and quantity aspects of water is largely
  lacking

Note the disparity ! 85-90 of surface water
sources are tapped by Urban water supply
Source Earth Treads 2001, World Resources
Institute
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Map of extent of Ground Water Exploitation

• Heavy extraction of groundwater, especially for
  irrigation groundwater levels in many districts
  have fallen by more than 4 meters (_at_ gt 20
  cm/year) during 1981-2000.
• 15 of the blocks fall under dark/grey/over-exploi
  ted area
• Source CGWB

Caution Excess withdrawals cause ingress of
chemical contaminants
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Fresh Water Availability

• Utilizable water resource in Brahmaputra valley
  is 18,417 cu.m. and in the Sabarmati Basin it is
  as low as 180 cu.m. Rajasthan has 8 of
  population with 1 of countrys water resource
  and Bihar has 10 of population with 5 water
  resource
• Rapid urbanization (2025 -more than 50 urban
  population and by 2050 population to reach1.64
  billion), food security (1.13 billion),
  phenomenal industrial growth and ever increasing
  population growth has witnessed extensive
  development of water resources.
• Irrigation potential increased from 23 million
  hectares in 1951, since attaining independence to
  about 100 million hectares now. The production of
  food grains has increased from around 50 million
  tonnes in the fifties to about 200 million
  tonnes. Would need 450 million tonnes by the year
  2050 A.D.
• Indias finite and fragile water resources are
  stressed, while sectoral demands are increasing.
• Per capita water availability has been falling
  drastically from 5,000 cubic meters per year in
  1947 to about 2000 cubic meters per year at
  present and may decline to 1000 cubic meters per
  year in 2050

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Annual Per Capita Availability
Precipitation 4,000 km3
Where are we leading to ?
Adequate Water
Water Scarcity
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Deteriorating Ground Water Quality

• Over-drawal and extensive use of pesticides and
  insecticides for irrigation have made the sources
  un-potable in many area excess nitrate in 19387
  habitations in 10 states( Rajasthan-7693,
  Karnataka-4077 Maharashtra-4552)
• In costal areas saline water intrusion resulted
  in contamination of the potable ground water
  aquifers 12425 habitations in 15 States
  (Rajasthan-4428)
• Presence of high concentration of arsenic and
  fluoride in ground water based drinking water
  sources is attributed to anthropogenic and
  geogenic.
• Studies in West Bengal show that arsenic in
  ground water is primarily due to leaching of
  arsenic bearing soil, which is geogenic in nature
• Fluoride contamination affects people in more
  than 29030 habitations in 17 States and excess
  arsenic in 7067 habitations in 5 States.
• Excess iron present in 104,477 habitations in 24
  States(Assam-23,841 Bihar-21,540 Orissa
  -26,136)

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Water quality affected habitations as on
01.04.2006
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Increasing investment trend in RWS Sector
State Government investments were higher than the
Central Govt. investments till the XI Plan
period.
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THE CURRENT SITUTATION RWS SECTOR

• Water Source Problems
• High dependence on ground water (85)
• Over extraction of ground water for irrigation
• Uncontrolled deforestation
• Neglect of traditional practices and systems,
  including rain water harvesting
• Inadequate integrated water management and
  watershed development
• Emerging water quality problems

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THE CURRENT SITUTATION RWS SECTOR CONTINUED

• MANAGEMENT PROBLEM
• SECTOR SUFFERS FROM GENERAL VICIOUS CIRCLE
  SYNDROME
• ADHOC APPROACH ADOPTED IN DEVELOPMENT OF PROJECTS
• EMPHASIS ON PHYSICAL COVERAGE ONLY
• INADEQUATE FINANCIAL ALLOCATION AGAINST WORKS
  UNDERTAKEN
• LACK OF PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE FUND
• INEFFICIENT AND BLOATED SERVICE INSTITUTIONS
• LEADING TO GAP BETWEEN ASSETS CREATED AND SERVICE
  AVAILABLE. OUTLAY OUT PUT GAP

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THE CURRENT SITUTATION RWS SECTOR (CONTINUED)

• UNWILLINGNESS OF USER TO PAY FOR SERVICE
• UNABLE TO MAINTAIN SERVICES WITHOUT EXTENSIVE
  SUBSIDIES
• LACK OF ADEQUATE PRICING LEVELS CHARGED TO
  CONSUMERS CONTRIBUTES TO THE FINANCIAL WEAKNESS
  OF AGENCY
• FAILURE TO LEVY RATES PREVENTS EFFICIENT USE AND
  CONSERVATION OF WATER
• MINING OF GROUND WATER FOR IRRIGATION (FREE POWER
  TARRIF) RESULTED LARGE NOS OF DW SOURCES DEFUNCT.

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Coverage status of Habitations

• Based on 1991-94 survey and revalidation figure
  of 1996 and subsequent coverage upto 2003 the
  coverage of rural habitations was more than 97
• Fresh survey in 2003 revealed that there are
  55,067 habitations that are yet to be covered of
  the earlier survey
• Alarming aspect is that 2.8 lakh habitations
  which were fully covered have become partially
  covered primarily due to failure of source.
  Reassessed figure is 3.31 lakh
• 2,16,968 habitations have water quality problems
• Thus total 6,03,639 habitations are to be covered
  during Bharat Nirman period (2005-06 to 2008-09)

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Action initiated by DDWS

• States are encouraged to take up water
  recharging structures, water conservation
  techniques and rain water harvesting structures
  to ensure sustainability of drinking water
  sources. Funds are provided for the same
• Launched Community Based Water Quality Monitoring
  and Surveillance Program in which sanitary
  inspection is introduced. Districts Laboratories
  have also been sanctioned
• Under Sub-Mission program special funds are
  provided to tackle quality affected habitations
  with major thrust on Arsenic and Fluoride
• Launched CCDU for generating awareness and
  capacity development
• Major emphasis is given to linking with other
  related activities i.e. watershed management,
  NREGP, prevention of pollution of surface
  ground water etc. and empowering community in
  decision making

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Actions needed

• Move away from dependency on one source to a
  combination of sources
• Greater emphasis on individual roof-water
  harvesting
• Introduction of regular and systematic collection
  of hydro-meteorological, hydrological and
  hydro-geological data by all related Departments
  and analysis the Data by a single nodal agency
• Supplement by introducing a system for processing
  qualitative and quantitative information for all
  types of water bodies.
• Project future sector-wise demand including
  quality and type of user and develop National
  Water Master Plan for short and long term
  perspective.
• Demand for water for different purposes should be
  estimated at different periods of time in
  conformity with respective State goal
• The right of individual exploitation of ground
  water needs to be restricted both for economic
  reasons for equitable distribution

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Actions needed continued.

• Strong Scientific inputs based on existing and
  innovative techniques in water resource
  development management at the micro and macro
  level is required.
• Regulation, monitoring and enforcement to prevent
  over exploitation and pollution of DW source
  through public and collective rights on local
  communities seems essential
• For mitigation of quality problems steps have
  been initiated to shift from ground water based
  to surface water based schemes and also
  conjunctive use of ground water, surface water
  roof-water harvesting
• To bring this holistic approach of Integrated
  Water Resource Management there is need a to
  rope in services of Technical Experts to assist
  the State Governments in proper implementation of
  the programme.

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• Thank You