51676 Deep Wells and Prudence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India The World Bank Deep Wells and Prudence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India The World Bank @2010 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20433 USA The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The report has been discussed with the Government of India, but does not necessarily bear their approval for all its contents, especially where the authors have stated their judgements/opinions/policy recommendations. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. 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Ltd. www.macrographics.com Contents Acknowledgments and Contributions vii Executive Summary ix Introduction ix Understanding realities under and above the ground x Institutional framework of groundwater management in India xiii Potential of community groundwater management in India xv Pragmatic approaches for managing overexploited aquifers in India xvi Introduction 1 The invisible vital resource 1 Groundwater preeminence: An era of individual coping strategies 1 Groundwater for irrigation 1 Groundwater for drinking water 2 Cracks appearing on the ground 3 Economic and social consequences of groundwater overexploitation 3 Failing the Millennium Development Goals 3 Deteriorating livelihoods, food security, and agricultural productivity 5 Environmental degradation 5 Fiscal implications 5 Climate change 5 World Bank Study and Technical Assistance Initiative on Groundwater Management in India 6 Background 6 Objectives and scope 6 Developing a "Plan B" 7 Process and audience 7 You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and 11 Above the Ground Introduction 11 The essential foundation of groundwater characterization: A context for resource 13 management Understanding the drivers of groundwater demand 15 Typology of aquifers and users 18 Assessing when groundwater exploitation becomes excessive 18 Exploitation concerns and management approaches 19 Hard-rock terrains of rural peninsular India 20 Major alluvial aquifers of the rural Indo-Gangetic plains 30 Urban groundwater use and policy concerns 36 Conclusion: Tailoring groundwater management to each specific typology 42 A Semblance of Sufficiency: Institutional Framework of Groundwater Management in India 45 Introduction 45 Types of groundwater management instruments 46 Groundwater use in India: Legislative environment 46 Groundwater use in India: Administrative and organizational environment 48 Groundwater use in India: Sector policy environment 51 Introducing high-level policy reform ­ to what end? 53 Regulatory measures 53 Economic instruments 55 Tradable groundwater rights 55 Community management of groundwater 56 Limitations of standard instruments of groundwater management for addressing 58 overexploitation in India Conclusion 58 A Groundswell of Change: Potential of Community Groundwater Management in India 59 Introduction: The promise of community management 59 Background: Groundwater in Andhra Pradesh 60 Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems Project 60 APFAMGS approach 61 APFAMGS process 62 APFAMGS outcomes: Demonstrating the potential of community management 64 Unpacking the magic: Success in community management of groundwater 67 More points of light: Community-led groundwater management in other initiatives in 72 Andhra Pradesh Situating the challenge: Groundwater as a common property resource 73 Conclusions: Emerging directions for community-based groundwater management 74 Pragmatic Approaches for Managing Overexploited Aquifers in India 77 Introduction 77 Conceptual basis of Plan B 77 Elements of Plan B: Building a practice of groundwater management 79 Implementation action 1: Building capacity and adjusting the role of state 79 groundwater institutions Implementation action 2: Community-based groundwater management 82 Implementation action 3: Sector policy interventions and coordination 85 Implementation action 4: Targeted regulation of groundwater use 87 Pragmatic menu of implementation actions for overexploited aquifers 87 Epilogue: Summing up 89 Glossary 91 References 92 Boxes Box 2.1 India's Groundwater Recharge Master Plan 25 Box 2.2 Possibilities for demand management interventions in Punjab 37 Box 2.3 Groundwater in municipal water supply of Lucknow 41 Box 2.4 Stabilizing groundwater use in Greater Bangkok 43 Box 3.1 Adequacy of existing legal framework for effective groundwater management in India 48 Box 3.2 The Jyotirgram scheme in Gujarat 53 Box 4.1 Farmer survey and remote sensing to assess early results of APFAMGS 64 Box 4.2 Economic modeling of groundwater resource use behavior in rural India 71 Box 5.1 Supporting effective groundwater agencies: Lessons learned from World Bank 82 projects in Maharashtra Figures Figure 1 Major determinants of groundwater management sustainability xi Figure 1.1 Evolution of canal, tank, and well irrigation in India 1950­2000 2 Figure 1.2 Coverage of rural habitations with water supply schemes (percent of total) 4 Figure 2.1 Major determinants of groundwater management sustainability 12 Figure 2.2 Key types and properties of the most widely occurring aquifer types 13 Figure 2.3 Main hydrogeological provinces of India 14 Figure 2.4 Shallow borewell construction costs in 2007 for Aurangabad City 16 Figure 2.5 Cross-section of groundwater occurrence in weathered Deccan Trap basalt terrain 21 indicating varying resource potential and management implications Figure 2.6 Cross-section of groundwater occurrence in weathered granitic basement terrain 22 indicating varying resource potential and management implications Figure 2.7 Hydrogeological profile of an Indian weathered hard-rock aquifer system with 23 indicative pumping yields and energy costs Figure 2.8 Hydrogeological profile of Deccan Trap basalt around Hiwre Bazaar (Maharashtra) 26 illustrating favorable foothill conditions for recharge enhancement Figure 2.9 Hydrogeological structure of the Tapi valley (Maharashtra) showing the major 29 graben fill aquifer system prone to saline intrusion Figure 2.10 Sections illustrating overall scale of the Ganga alluvial aquifer system with inset 31 illustrating surface water­groundwater relations between major tributaries Figure 2.11 Groundwater irrigation on the Gangetic plain of Uttar Pradesh: Moving from 32 coping strategy to conjunctive use Figure 2.12 Cross-sections of the Indus alluvial plain in Punjab, illustrating the regional 35 groundwater flow regime and water table decline Figure 2.13 Average annual water use by different user categories in Aurangabad City 38 distinguishing adequate and depleted groundwater areas Figure 2.14 Indicative relative costs of main sources of Aurangabad City water supply 39 Figure 2.15 Historical growth of urban sprawl in Lucknow City (Uttar Pradesh) and current 40 rate of water table decline Figure 3.1 Contextual environment of water resources and water services 45 Figure 3.2 Increase in water well drillings with increasing regulation in Guanajuato state, Mexico 54 Figure 4.1 Evolution of total areas irrigated under groundwater and surface water in 61 Andhra Pradesh, 1978­2008 Figure 4.2 Emerging evidence of APFAMGS communities aligning groundwater use with 65 availability Figure 4.3 APFAMGS: Shift in cropping patterns 2006­07 to 2007­08 66 Figure 4.4 Changes in groundwater draft in APFAMGS hydrological units 67 Figure 4.5 APFAMGS hydrological units showing consistent reductions in groundwater draft 68 Figure 4.6 Per hectare demand for water in kharif and rabi seasons in Hiwre Bazaar 71 Figure 4.7 Net benefits under optimal and suboptimal groundwater extraction in Hiwre Bazaar 71 Figure 4.8 Crop areas in Siddyapalli under different combinations of crop profit value and 72 irrigation demand penalty Tables Table 1 Typology of intensively exploited aquifers in India xii Table 1.1 Summary list of activities under the World Bank Study and Technical Assistance 8 Initiative on Groundwater Management in India Table 2.1 Main groundwater settings in selected states of India 15 Table 2.2 Groundwater resource and socioeconomic aspects in selected states 17 Table 2.3 Typologies of intensively exploited aquifers in India 18 Table 2.4 Historical evolution of groundwater use for irrigated agriculture and corresponding 25 electrical energy consumption in Andhra Pradesh Table 2.5 Qualitative assessment of groundwater recharge enhancement measures 27 Table 2.6 Preferred management approaches under different aquifer and user typologies 43 Table 3.1 Main government agencies relevant to groundwater 49 Table 3.2 Main groundwater-related policies and scope for coordination and synergy 51 Table 4.1 Net value of outputs for project and nonproject areas 67 Table 5.1 Suggested missions and functions for individual units within a state groundwater 80 management agency Table 5.2 Recommended implementation actions for different settings of groundwater 88 overexploitation in India Acknowledgments and Contributions This report is the outcome of World Bank's Study The Initiative was led by Sanjay Pahuja, with a and Technical Assistance Initiative on Groundwater core team comprising of Catherine Tovey and Task management in India. This initiative included Team Leaders of associated World Bank-supported analytical work, policy assessments, and field projects (Deepak Ahluwalia, Smita Mishra, R.S. surveys, as well as focused technical assistance Pathak, N.V.V. Raghava and Javier Zuleta). The to groundwater management interventions in core team also included Stephen Foster and a number of World Bank-supported projects in Hector Garduno, as consultants from the World Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Bank's Ground Water Management Advisory Team The key collaborating partner institutions from (GWMATE). Other key consultants include N.V.V. the central and state governments are the Char, R.P.S. Malik, Yugandhar Mandavkar (GRASP - Union Ministry of Water Resources (including Aurangabad), Siwa Msangi (IFPRI), Marcella Nanni the Central Ground Water Board), Andhra (GWMATE), Saleem Romani, and B.V. Sharma Pradesh Irrigation Department (including the (University of Hyderabad). Directorate of Groundwater), Maharashtra Water Supply and Sanitation Department (including For the access, guidance, and encouragement Groundwater Survey and Development Agency), provided in the course of this effort, the team is Maharashtra Water Resources Department, Uttar grateful to, in alphabetical order, Goverdhan Das, Pradesh Irrigation Department and Uttar Pradesh Daniel Gustafson, A.J. James, Shrikant Limaye, K.A.S. Groundwater Department. The leadership, Mani, Anupam Mishra, Kirit Parikh, Popat Rao Pawar, support and guidance provided by the senior Joseph Plakkoottam, Chris Perry, Sergio Priante, government officials have been critical for the Pradeep Raj, Paul Raj Rao, P.S. Rao, and Tushaar progress of this work. In particular, the task team Shah. Within the World Bank, the outstanding wishes to thank U.N. Panjiar, R.M. Mishra, B.M. support of David Grey (Senior Water Advisor) Jha (Ministry of Water Resources), V.S. Dhumal, and Karin Kemper (Sector Manager, South Asia A.K. Jain, Vikas Kharge (Maharashtra), S.P. Tucker, Environment, Social and Water Resources Unit) is A.K. Jain (Andhra Pradesh), and H.R. Singh (Uttar gratefully acknowledged. The team is also grateful Pradesh) for their help and support. The team to Julia Bucknall, Priti Kumar, and Doug Olson also wishes to thank Suresh Kumar for facilitating whose reviews have made significant contribution engagement in Punjab. to improving the quality of the study report. Acknowledgments and Contributions vii The initiative has been supported in part by the Sanjay Pahuja is the principal author of the Bank-Netherlands Water Partnership Program report, with Catherine Tovey, Stephen Foster and (BNWPP), through support to GWMATE, and UK Hector Garduno as the contributing authors. Department for International Development (DFID), Ranu Sinha and Sarah Cline contributed to the and this support is gratefully acknowledged. background work. viii Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Executive Summary Introduction The flexibility and timeliness of groundwater supply presented an attractive alternative Background to the current groundwater crisis to the technically and institutionally less India is the largest groundwater user in the world, responsive provision of surface water through with an estimated usage of around 230 cubic public systems. kilometers per year, more than a quarter of the Government electricity subsidies have global total. With more than 60 percent of irrigated shielded farmers from the full cost of pumping, agriculture and 85 percent of drinking water creating a modality of groundwater use that supplies dependent on it, groundwater is a vital has proved very difficult to change. resource for rural areas in India. Reliance of urban and industrial wastre supplies on groundwater is This era of seemingly endless reliance on also becoming increasingly significant in India. groundwater for both drinking water and Through the construction of millions of private irrigation purposes is now approaching its wells, there has been a phenomenal growth in limit as an increasing number of aquifers reach the exploitation of groundwater in the last five unsustainable levels of exploitation, and a 2004 decades. nationwide assessment found 29 percent of groundwater blocks to be in the semi-critical, A number of factors have encouraged the critical, or overexploited categories, with the remarkable expansion of groundwater use: situation deteriorating rapidly. Poor service delivery from public water The potential social and economic consequences supply systems has prompted many farmers, of continued weak or nonexistent groundwater and rural and urban households, to turn to management are serious, as aquifer depletion is their own private supply for irrigation and for concentrated in many of the most populated and drinking water. economically productive areas. The implications New pump technologies meant that even are disturbing for attainment of the Millennium farmers and households with very modest Development Goals, for sustaining economic incomes could afford to sink and operate growth and local livelihoods, and for environmental their own tubewell. and fiscal sustainability. The consequences will be Executive Summary ix most severe for the poor. Furthermore, climate and technical assistance provided for groundwater change will put additional stress on groundwater components in World Bank-supported projects resources, while at the same time will have an in the heavily groundwater dependent states of unpredictable impact on groundwater recharge Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh, and availability. with an assessment also carried out in Punjab. Lessons were also compiled from experience in World Bank Study and Technical Assistance groundwater management gained in other Indian Initiative on Groundwater Management in India states and elsewhere in the world. Concern at this growing crisis prompted the Planning Commission of India to constitute an Understanding realities under and expert group to review the issue of groundwater above the ground management and suggest appropriate policy Determinants of groundwater use directions. The issue also featured prominently in the World Bank Water Resources Assistance Strategy While groundwater resource availability is for India. Accordingly, the World Bank Study and determined by the physical environment, the Technical Assistance Initiative on Groundwater dynamics of groundwater use are determined Management in India was conceived with two by the socio economic environment (nature of main objectives: economic activity, patterns of population density, societal norms) and the institutional environment To identify management strategies for (legal, administrative, macroeconomic, political). It promoting sustainable groundwater use is this range of factors that will ultimately determine in India, within a systematic, economically the sustainability of the resource (Figure 1). sound, and politically feasible framework To provide focused technical support for The physical characteristics of the groundwater enhancing the outcomes of groundwater resources can vary considerably. Within India there management interventions under the World are two broad types of hydrogeological settings: Bank-financed projects in participating states the shallow, low-storage hard-rock aquifers occurring in the basaltic and granitic systems At an early stage it was recognized that the of peninsular India; and the large, high-storage sheer scale of the problem, and the political aquifers underlying the Indo-Gangetic floodplains sensitivities attached to it, meant that conventional of northern India. command-and-control approaches as well as the classically prescribed economic approaches were Superimposed on those below-ground features is impracticable. Attention was therefore focused a complex web of above-ground socioeconomic on developing a "Plan B", involving pursuit of and institutional factors that determine the pragmatic approaches that could make incremental dynamics of groundwater extraction, including improvements largely within the existing the distinction between rural and urban use; the institutional framework, building political support relative inadequacy and unreliability of public for gradual and realistic institutional improvements water supply systems; the size of landholdings at higher levels by first demonstrating successful and the related density of water wells; the political interventions at local level. ramifications of subsidized power for irrigation pumping; and the institutional capacity to monitor Under the initiative a number of analytical studies, and regulate the millions of wells found across the field surveys, and assessments were undertaken, face of India. x Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Figure 1 Major determinants of groundwater management sustainability UNION & STATE GOVERNMENT MACRO-LEVEL INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS Groundwater Groundwater Political Economic legislation administration economy policy SOCIO - ECONOMIC BEHAVIOUR OF USERS LOCAL-LEVEL GROUNDWATER RESOURCE SUSTAINABILITY HYDROGEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF AQUIFER Typology of aquifers and users While the definition of overexploitation may appear simple, the sheer complexity of physical, Based on the aquifer characteristics (below environmental, socioeconomic, and other factors ground) and resource use patterns (above ground), related to groundwater abstraction makes it a typology of intensively exploited groundwater notoriously difficult to understand the nature of the settings is proposed (Table 1). This typology forms problem and devise effective solutions. Given that the basis of the analysis undertaken in the present proviso, some broad categories of interventions study. can be identified: Overexploitation of groundwater and Demand-side measures, which aim to reduce management approaches consumptive groundwater use, for example through an increase in water tariffs in urban "Overexploitation" of an aquifer is a term applied settings, or reducing crop water requirements to a physically unsustainable situation in which and nonbeneficial evapotranspiration from the extraction of groundwater exceeds fields in agricultural settings replenishment (recharge) within a given area over a given period of time. Such a situation is Conjunctive use, where savings are now occurring in many aquifers throughout India. made through better alignment of surface Executive Summary xi Table 1 Typology of intensively exploited aquifers in India Focus states in Land use General and specific hydrogeological environment Resource use this study Widespread weathered hard-rock (basalt Andhra Pradesh, Hard-rock or granite) aquifers with shallow, low- Subsistence and commercial Maharashtra terrains of storage patchy groundwater bodies agricultural exploitation, peninsular Occasional but important groundwater drinking water supply, some India bodies in coastal or graben fill industries Maharashtra sedimentary aquifers Rural Alluvial aquifers, in plains largely within Major alluvial major irrigation canal commands with Uttar Pradesh formations of Mainly subsistence and naturally shallow water table rural Indo- commercial agricultural Alluvial aquifers in the older elevated Gangetic exploitation alluvial plains, with more limited irrigation Punjab plains canals and deeper water table Weathered hard-rock aquifers with Individual urban households, Urban shallow, low-storage patchy groundwater Maharashtra Urban water utilities, industries, environment bodies tourism Major alluvial aquifers in alluvial plains Uttar Pradesh water and groundwater resources in a Groundwater recharge enhancement has been specific area promoted as a means of aiding recovery of water tables. The largest potential for recharge exists in Groundwater recharge enhancement, alluvial settings, where there is abundant excess whereby physical structures are built to runoff as well groundwater storage capacity required retain runoff and encourage infiltration to for recharge. Most of the country's overexploited groundwater groundwater blocks lie in hard-rock settings, where The hard-rock and alluvial aquifers differ recharge can provide only limited relief, and may considerably in their physical and socioeconomic be best employed as a valuable adjunct to other profiles, and require very different sets of measures, such as rainwater harvesting. management solutions, at both macro and micro levels. Demand-side measures may offer more hope for controlling overexploitation. With over 13 Hard-rock terrains of rural peninsular India: million wells in the hard-rock areas, bottom-up, Characteristics and management options community-based approaches are more likely to be effective than top-down, broad-based attempts In a sustainable scenario, dry season depletion of at regulation. these low-storage aquifers, mainly for irrigation, is adequately compensated by recharge during Alluvial aquifers of the rural Indo-Gangetic the monsoonal rains. However, a rapid growth plains: Characteristics and management options in the number of borewells since 1980 has led to a steady decline in water tables, resulting in The huge aquifers underlying the Indo-Gangetic a large increase in the cost of pumping a given river systems are recharged both by monsoonal volume of water, from which farmers have rains and by leakage from the major irrigation largely been shielded by flat rate, subsidized canal commands. The problems of excessive electricity tariffs. groundwater extraction in the tail reaches, and xii Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India waterlogging and salinization in the head reaches Institutional framework of groundwater are often found in the same canal command. In management in India such areas, there is considerable potential for better water management through conjunctive At the macro level, legal, administrative, political, use, based on microzone management. and economic factors are all powerful determinants positively or negatively influencing the decisions Elevated alluvial areas of Punjab: Characteristics of farmers and households, at the individual and and management options collective levels, regarding the use of groundwater in India. In the elevated alluvial areas of Punjab, water tables are deeper and coverage of irrigation canals Legislative environment less extensive than in the lower plains. The state is very agriculturally productive, but again there The legislative environment in India is are growing concerns about falling water tables characterized by the strong states within the wider resulting from the burgeoning use of tubewells federal framework. The Constitution lists "water for irrigation, with mounting costs to the state supplies" under the State List, thereby giving government, which subsidizes energy costs, and states jurisdiction over the groundwater within to farmers, as they chase the water table with their boundaries, while one of the functions of more powerful pumps. Demand management the Union Ministry of Water Resources is "overall interventions offer most potential, and a planning for the development of groundwater government prohibition on early transplanting of resources". In an attempt to regularize the matter paddy has resulted in considerable water savings the government of India established the Central with no negative impacts on productivity. Ground Water Authority in 1996 to regulate and control groundwater development with a view to Urban groundwater use: Characteristics and preserving and protecting the resource. It has also management options issued several revisions of the Model Groundwater Bill of 1970, which provides states with a template Rapid urban growth, along with inadequate for regulation of groundwater. The Planning municipal water supply systems, have led to Commission's Expert Group on Groundwater accelerated expansion in private well development Management and Ownership has argued that to satisfy escalating water demand in urban the legislative framework is in fact reasonably areas. Where cities overlie hard-rock aquifers (for robust, and the priority lies in enforcement of example Aurangabad in Maharashtra) this can existing measures, supported by innovative lead to severe seasonal depletion and pollution approaches such as an expansion of community- of the groundwater body. Even cities above the based management. extensive alluvial aquifers (for example Delhi and Lucknow) are finding the underlying water Administrative and organizational environment tables inexorably declining. For such cities a more integrated vision of, and balanced policy between, Management of groundwater suffers from utility infrastructure provision (water supply and fragmentation of responsibility at both central sanitation) and private self-supply, dovetailing and state levels. Many agencies in various sectors both surface water and groundwater supply, will have mandates relevant to groundwater, but need to be developed on a case-by-case basis, there is little coordination among them and a under the aegis of empowered and well-organized lack of regulatory oversight. Not all states have regulatory agencies. dedicated groundwater authorities, and in almost Executive Summary xiii all cases groundwater-related agencies suffer from Economic instruments. Pricing measures, understaffing, lack of capacity, marginalization, including volumetric charges, taxes, and outdated mandates that prioritize survey and and user fees, can act as incentives to development ahead of resource management. conservation and more efficient allocation of water resources, provided they address Groundwater use in India: Sector policy concerns of equity and affordability to the development poor. Again, however, implementability is a major constraint, and the registration of In most environments, the modalities of over 20 million well users in India would be a groundwater use are strongly contextual and daunting task to say the least. intersectorally linked. In agriculture, for example, groundwater use depends significantly on energy Tradable groundwater rights. While a well- options and costs of pumping, availability of defined rights regime helps resource users surface irrigation, and cropping choices. Similarly, to reach optimal outcomes, the measure the unreliability of urban domestic and industrial encounters the same fundamental difficulty water supplies is the primary driver of self-provision as for regulation and pricing ­ the very high through private wells in urban areas. Of all these transaction costs of implementation. sectoral linkages, that pertaining to the provision of power to farmers ­ termed the "energy­ Community management of groundwater. groundwater nexus" ­ is the most prominent. There Strictly speaking, community groundwater is an ideological stalemate on addressing the issue management refers not to a specific of cheap electricity for farmers, but innovative instrument but to a means of implementing solutions to this impasse have included a successful management interventions. The key is that the initiative in Gujarat to separate agricultural and resource user community (instead of the state) nonagricultural electricity feeders in rural areas. is the primary custodian of groundwater and is charged with implementing management High-level policy reform: Available instruments measures. Hence, community groundwater management can involve any mix of International experience, and experience within instruments, including regulation, property India, give insight into the instruments available for rights, and pricing. Some well-publicized groundwater management and their applicability examples of successful community self- in the Indian setting. The four main categories are: regulation have occurred in India but have Regulatory measures. Effective regulation often been dependent on the influence of requires not only sound legislation but a charismatic leader, raising doubts about also the administrative capacity to monitor replicability, implementability at scale, and enforce rules. This becomes extremely and the presence of long-term incentives. difficult when there are very large numbers While community-based management of of small users, as has been shown by the groundwater is clearly a promising approach problems encountered in attempting to in India, global experience offers few models enforce Central Ground Water Authority of community management that might be directives in overexploited groundwater applicable in the Indian setting, and a home- blocks. Effective use of such measures is grown solution will undoubtedly be needed. only possible for a small numbers of severely The following section addresses this issue threatened resources, as allowed for in the through consideration of a project that has existing legal framework. demonstrated considerable potential. xiv Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Potential of community groundwater making their cropping decisions for the coming management in India season. Preliminary findings in the project area have shown that the project has achieved a closer Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater alignment of water availability and water use, and Systems Project reductions in groundwater use have been realized Andhra Pradesh is one of several states underlain through, for example, crop diversification (with an by hard-rock aquifers that have suffered increase in low-water-use crops) and water-saving considerable depletion of groundwater, largely irrigation methods. Importantly, farmers have not for irrigation use, in recent decades. The Andhra sacrificed profitability to reduce water use. Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems Project (APFAMGS) has adopted a novel approach Other community-based groundwater to the problem. The core concept of APFAMGS is management approaches pioneered in Andhra that sustainable management of groundwater is Pradesh have also had some degree of success, feasible only if users understand its occurrence, including the APWELL project, and a number cycle, and limited availability. To achieve this end, of similar efforts are being piloted through the project has engaged farmers in data collection the Andhra Pradesh Community-based Tanks and analysis, building their understanding of the Management Project and the Andhra Pradesh dynamics and status of groundwater in the local Drought Adaptation Initiative. aquifers. Even farmers with limited literacy skills have demonstrated their ability to collect and Emerging directions for community-based analyze rainfall and groundwater data, estimate and groundwater management regulate their annual water use based on planned cropping patterns, and increase their knowledge APFAMGS presents an instructive case study in the of improved agricultural practices through "how-to-do" of community-based groundwater attendance at farmer water schools (at which a management, with its emphasis on participatory third of the facilitators are women). The project rather than passive information gathering, use does not offer any incentives in the form of cash of nonformal means of education, attention to or subsidies to the farmers: the assumption is that capacity building and social mobilization rather access to scientific data and knowledge will enable than physical solutions, generation of a culture farmers to make appropriate choices and decisions of empowerment through engagement of all regarding the use of groundwater resources. segments of the community, and respect for farmers' ability to process crucial information of The core organizational component of the direct relevance to them. project is the groundwater management committee, a village-level community-based Importantly, the project does not seek collective institution comprising all groundwater users action on reducing groundwater abstraction, and in a community. The committees are in turn individual farmers are free to plant what they grouped into hydrological units. Data gathered want and pump as they desire. The reductions in through hydrological monitoring of rainfall and groundwater draft in APFAMGS are not coming groundwater levels are used to estimate the from altruistic collective action, but from the crop water budget, which is an aquifer-level individual risk management and profit-seeking assessment of the quantity of water required for decisions of thousands of farmers. This makes the proposed rabi (winter) planting. Awareness the APFAMGS model robust and replicable, of this statistic has become one of the essential as no authoritative leadership is required for variables that farmers take into account when enforcement of compacts. Executive Summary xv APFAMGS therefore demonstrates an interesting aimed to devise pragmatic measures that can be approach to the concept of groundwater as a effectively implemented on the ground at low common property resource, sidestepping the political cost. India presents a unique case, with difficult issue of creating and implementing a a globally unprecedented level of exploitation of collective compact on water use reduction by groundwater bodies in a wide range of settings, limiting the collective action to building a common requiring the formulation of adaptable, context- understanding of groundwater dynamics, with specific solutions. sustainable groundwater management emerging as an indirect response to farmers' profit-seeking The issue of power subsidies to farmers, which has behavior. A major lesson is therefore that undoubtedly been a major driver of groundwater community-based groundwater management development, has required particularly careful need not require sacrifice; in these circumstances handling, as any increase in tariffs may be the fact that agriculture in many parts of India is viewed as another financial burden on an already operating below optimal productivity could well impoverished agricultural society that is being left be an opportunity in disguise. behind by increasing urban affluence. The focus of this study and initiative has therefore been on the State-level engagement is still required to support practice of groundwater management at ground and nurture a community-based approach. State level, rather than on changes to the relatively agencies should create an enabling environment, intractable political context. ensuring that community-based initiatives receive the support they need to build capacity, take on Elements of Plan B: Building a practice of the lessons of experience, and improve institutional groundwater management coordination at the local level. The findings of the World Bank's Study and At the same time, the limitations of community- Technical Assistance Initiative on Groundwater based approaches need to be recognized. The Management in India point towards a menu of APFAMGS model, for example, seems well adapted pragmatic management interventions, which fall to the recharge and emptying dynamics of hard- into three broad categories: (a) community-based rock aquifers, but may not be appropriate to the groundwater resource management; (b) targeted geographically vast alluvial aquifers of northern regulation; and (c) sectoral policy interventions and India. The available models of community coordination. Strengthening state groundwater groundwater management would need careful and agencies is a cross-cutting intervention underlying innovative piloting before they can be replicated the whole process. The suggested implementation and scale interventions become possible. actions emerging from this process are therefore as follows: Pragmatic approaches for managing Implementation action 1: Building overexploited aquifers in India capacity and adjusting the role of state groundwater institutions. The capacity of There is an urgent need to change the status quo. state groundwater institutions will need to be The rapidly falling groundwater tables in many developed to ensure that they can perform parts of India present serious and immediate the key functions of providing information human development and economic challenges. and technical support, enabling community Given the political difficulties associated with high- management, and enforcing regulatory level policy reform and a top-down approach, measures. With community groundwater the focus has been on a "Plan B", which has management emerging as the most viable xvi Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India model (at least for hard-rock areas), ensuring areas. More optimized conjunctive use that community-based initiatives get the through microzone planning (including, for required support will be the most critical example, bank sealing and desedimentation function of the state groundwater agencies. of major canals) could increase the It is important that the groundwater agency cropping intensity without compromising is located at an appropriate level within the groundwater resource sustainability. state hierarchy to enable it to participate Implementation action 3.2: Integrating in and influence the dialogue on aspects groundwater in urban water supply of policy related to irrigation, agriculture, planning. There is an urgent and general energy, land planning, and rural and urban requirement to move from opportunistic development. exploitation of groundwater resources Implementation action 2: Community- to more systematic evaluation of the based groundwater management. While status of urban groundwater use and the the "what-to-do" elements of successful contribution it can make to meeting future community action on groundwater demand, together with the integration of management are broadly known ­ actionable this important resource into overall urban resource information, social mobilization, development plans. Municipal agencies and incentives to facilitate change ­ there is a need to develop a more coordinated vision notable lack of proven models for community- of, and balanced policy between, utility based groundwater management. This report infrastructure provision (both water supply begins to address this gap, and the Andhra and sanitation) and private self-supply. Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Implementation action 3.3: Technical Systems Project (described above), with and political solutions to agricultural its focus on knowledge building and power pricing. The current situation of empowerment rather than on target setting heavily subsidized power in the agricultural and coercion, offers significant potential sector is placing a heavy financial burden for replication and scaling up in hard rock on the state electricity boards, and a aquifer areas. politically pragmatic resolution of the energy­groundwater nexus is important Implementation action 3: Sector policy for ensuring the viability and sustainability interventions and coordination. Because of of both groundwater-based agriculture groundwater's ubiquitous use, it is essential to and the electricity sector in India. Gujarat's address linkages with other sectoral policies scheme to provide 24-hour power supply and programs (public as well as private, and for domestic, institutional, and industrial at national, state, and municipal levels) that use in villages, with the farmers getting have a large impact on groundwater: eight hours of improved quality and Implementation action 3.1: Promoting reliable power on an announced schedule, conjunctive use in agriculture. In the has proved to be a compromise that irrigation canal commands of the Ganga has allowed regulation of electricity and Indus river systems, heavy depletion of and groundwater use with few political aquifers often exists in close proximity to repercussions, and is potentially replicable problems of waterlogging and salinization elsewhere. Meanwhile, efforts need to be arising from canal leakages and excessive instigated to involve all stakeholders in use of surface water in high-water-table trying to craft a solution to the energy­ Executive Summary xvii groundwater nexus that is sustainable in millions of private well drillings unfettered by any the long term. direct law or management framework, presenting a management challenge of daunting proportions. Implementation action 4: Targeted International experience in groundwater regulation of groundwater use. As previously management presents few models applicable noted, total regulation of groundwater to the unique Indian setting. In the meantime a abstraction is not feasible in India. However, combination of economic, social, institutional, and a selective command and control approach political factors have rendered central and state is needed for critically endangered aquifers. agencies powerless to halt the relentless decline of Enforcement of groundwater regulations is water tables across India. urgently required in certain urban settings, and a start could be made in granting The premise and mandate of the World Bank's individual groundwater allocations to some of Study and Technical Assistance Initiative on the largest users (commercial farms, industry, Groundwater Management in India was to accept urban water utilities) in overexploited as given the political economy and identify major alluvial aquifers. Any measures would pragmatic options for groundwater management require capacity building of central and state that can be implemented largely within the existing groundwater agencies. institutional framework. Together, the proposed set of interventions sets the basis for changing the Epilogue: Summing up game on groundwater management in India to one Groundwater is now arguably the most critical where diligent implementation of interventions water resource of India. In a vast majority of rural within the current framework can start producing and urban settings, it underpins agricultural immediate management results on the ground. For production, livelihoods depending on the rural India today, groundwater is too critical a resource agrarian economy, and urban and rural water to continue to be left unmanaged, and it is hoped supplies. The explosive growth in groundwater that the findings of this report can inspire an action use, and subsequent overexploitation of many agenda for moving swiftly to protect the vital but aquifers, has been furtive in its nature, as a result of ever-declining aquifers of the country. xviii Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Introduction The invisible vital resource use have stayed hidden to all except the most diligent administrations throughout the history India is the largest groundwater user in the world, of the subcontinent (Agarwal and Narain 1997). with an estimated usage of around 230 cubic Modern India is no exception ­ the widespread kilometers per year, which is more than a quarter development of private wells that accounts for of the global total. Groundwater is a vital resource, groundwater becoming the primary source of with a large fraction of the population relying on water today has also been furtive in nature, in that the resource directly or indirectly for livelihoods. it has happened mostly outside the knowledge More than 60 percent1 of irrigated agriculture in and control of governments. Groundwater has the country is dependent on groundwater, with therefore been invisible not only physically, but the crop water productivity of groundwater- also institutionally, as a critical resource literally irrigated farms being almost twice that of surface underpinning millions of lives and livelihoods in water-irrigated farms. The most conservative the country. estimate put the economic value of groundwater irrigation in India in 2002 at US$8 billion per year, Groundwater preeminence: An era of which is four times the annual public investment in individual coping strategies irrigation projects and more than all government expenditures in India on poverty reduction and For farmers, as well as rural and urban households, rural development programs (Shah 2007). The the private water well has become a preferred significance of groundwater for domestic water alternative to the often dysfunctional public water supplies is similarly marked, with 85 percent of systems. The exploitation of groundwater for self- the rural water supply schemes in India relying on provision of water supply by private users in India's groundwater sources. However, the well has almost agricultural and water supply sectors has rapidly always been a private enterprise, and therefore expanded over the last five decades. the exact extent and significance of groundwater Groundwater for irrigation 1 Based on Government of India 2005. Other estimates are higher. India's National Sample Survey (NSSO 2005) indicated that 69 Around 1960, groundwater irrigation started percent of kharif and 76 percent of rabi irrigated areas depended on groundwater. developing at an explosive rate (Figure 1.1). Introduction 1 Figure 1.1 Evolution of canal, tank, and well irrigation in India 1950­2000 40 canal 30 tanks Million hectares irrigated wells 20 10 0 1950 - 51 1960 - 61 1970 - 71 1980 - 81 1984 - 85 1993 - 94 1999 - 2000 Source: Bhatia 2005, cited in World Bank 2005. The Green Revolution was a turning point in was not possible in the institutionally complex India's agricultural development, providing great and increasingly corruption-ridden canal irrigation benefits to those who could adopt new seeds and systems; and (f ) in later decades, many states fertilizers, for which water control was an essential started offering "free or nearly free" electricity for prerequisite. Although large investments in surface irrigators dependent on tubewells. irrigation projects were undertaken to provide an assured water supply to larger numbers of As a result, groundwater is now the predominant farmers, many remained underserved. A series of source of water supply for irrigation in India. The additional pull and push factors came into play, pressure on groundwater resources has continued prompting an ever-increasing number of farmers to grow as, over the last four decades, 84 percent of to opt for groundwater irrigation: (a) electricity the total addition to net irrigated areas has come supply expanded in rural areas; (b) in areas from groundwater. where waterlogging and salinity were a growing problem (such as parts of Punjab) it was realized Groundwater for drinking water that encouragement of groundwater pumping provided an effective mechanism for lowering For most Indians, groundwater is also a major the water table and mitigating their impacts; (c) source of drinking water. Eighty-five percent of modest new modular well and pump technologies rural drinking water supply schemes are based on became widely available, as did subsidized credit; groundwater sources. Groundwater is also a major (d) farmers became aware that groundwater was source of water supply in urban areas, where the abundant, especially in large alluvial basins; (e) resource is extracted not only by the municipal farmers realized that water could be applied just water utilities but also increasingly through private in time from groundwater sources, something that wells as a coping response to poor municipal 2 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India supply. Thus, while in Delhi groundwater accounts Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu for only 11 percent of the total raw water supply taken together, 54 percent of the groundwater to the utility, it accounts for almost 50 percent of blocks fall in these categories. In already large and the volume received by the end users (Maria 2006). rapidly growing segments of the economy and in Similarly, in Aurangabad groundwater accounts many of India's most productive regions, the self- for close to 40 percent of the water provided to provision model of unlimited groundwater use is consumers. Although the cost of water obtained no longer sustainable. A crisis situation now exists from private wells is high ­ six times higher than in a number of states. In Punjab, groundwater in the average payment to the utility in Delhi, for 75 percent of blocks is overdrawn; in Rajasthan example ­ it is a widespread and economically the corresponding fraction is 60 percent; and for viable coping strategy amongst the middle class. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu the figure is around 40 Purchasing water from vendors or receiving it percent (Central Ground Water Board 2006). The free from political patrons (who are themselves situation is deteriorating at a rapid pace. Between supplied by groundwater) is another option used 1995 and 2004, the proportion of overexploited in poorer areas and slums, or where groundwater is blocks nationwide tripled from 5 to 15 percent. locally unavailable. If current trends continue, within 20 years 60 Cracks appearing on the ground percent of all aquifers in India will be in a critical condition (World Bank 2005). The potential social This era of seemingly endless reliance on and economic consequences of continued weak or groundwater for both drinking water and irrigation nonexistent groundwater management are serious, purposes is now approaching its limit as an since aquifer depletion is concentrated in many of increasing number of aquifers reach unsustainable the most populated and economically productive levels of exploitation. The National Commission on areas (World Bank 2005). The implications are Water in 1999 first noted that overall groundwater disturbing for attainment of the Millennium balances were becoming precarious. Overall, Development Goals, for sustaining economic India has around 430 cubic kilometers of annual growth and local livelihoods, and for environmental replenishable groundwater resources. With a and fiscal sustainability. net annual groundwater availability of 399 cubic kilometers, in 2004 the net withdrawals amounted Economic and social consequences of to 58 percent of the net annually available groundwater overexploitation resource. This seemingly comfortable average groundwater balance masks, however, a large Failing the Millennium Development Goals number of severely stressed locations across the Rural areas are almost entirely dependent on country, mostly in western, northwestern, and groundwater for drinking supplies. Every year, peninsular India. According to the 2004 nationwide a large number of habitations initially covered assessment, 29 percent of the groundwater blocks by a water supply scheme slip back into the are in the semi-critical, critical, or overexploited "partially covered" or "not covered" categories, categories.2 For the six states of Gujarat, Haryana, due to failure of schemes. The latest habitation survey in 2007 found the extent of such slippage 2 The Central Ground Water Board categorizes the groundwater blocks according to the decline in water level and the stage of groundwater use (the stage of groundwater use is the decline in pre- or postmonsoonal water level); critical (stage > annual groundwater draft expressed as a percentage of net 90% and < 100%; significant long-term decline in both pre- and annual groundwater availability). Safe (stage < 90%; no pre- or postmonsoonal water levels); overexploited (stage > 100%; postmonsoonal significant long-term decline in water level); significant long-term decline in pre- or postmonsoonal water level semi-critical (stage > 70% and < 100%; significant long-term or both). Introduction 3 Figure 1.2 Coverage of rural habitations with water supply schemes (percent of total) 95 92 79 Percentage of habitations covered 77 by water supply schemes 70 57 Slipped back as per latest habitation survey (2007) 31 18 6 1966 1974 1980 1980 1990 1994 2000 2007 Source: National Advisory Council 2008. to be more than 150,000 habitations, bringing (Figure 1.2). While causes of slippage are many, down the nationwide coverage by 12 percent ensuring source sustainability of groundwater- A woman in Barmer district walking to fetch water. The donkeys help in bringing home the filled-up pots and buckets. 4 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India based schemes is proving to be critical in view of contribution to sustaining springs, inland wetlands, continuously declining water tables. and base flows in rivers during the dry season. Water flows contributed by groundwater are therefore Groundwater overexploitation in India may critical for fisheries and aquatic ecosystems. therefore have serious implications for achieving Groundwater levels also directly influence the Millennium Development Goals. Given water's many vegetation species that are important cross-cutting linkages, further slippage due to sources of food, fuel, and timber for dependent falling water tables would not only threaten the communities. Groundwater is an integral part of safe drinking water target but would also be likely the linked hydrological, ecological, and human use to affect improvements in education, health, systems, and a range of environmental services is gender, child mortality, poverty, and hunger. imperiled by groundwater overexploitation and quality degradation. Deteriorating livelihoods, food security, and agricultural productivity Fiscal implications About 15 percent of India's food production The issue of groundwater resource sustainability is currently dependent on unsustainable is compounded by a growing fiscal problem. groundwater use (World Bank 2005). In rain-fed or Groundwater use in agriculture, especially in areas drought-prone areas, where subsistence farming where overexploitation is a growing concern, rests is more prevalent, increased competition between in a large part on the provision of free or cheap farmers reliant on a given groundwater body electricity. While electricity subsidies are widely results in a spiraling cycle of well deepening or (and correctly) perceived to be one of the main redrilling and the purchase of new pump sets. This causes of groundwater overexploitation, it can also has serious social implications for the poorest, who be argued that the astronomical increase in the can no longer afford such action and risk exclusion power subsidy costs in recent decades is the result from access to groundwater for their irrigation of the increasing inability of farmers to bear the and drinking needs. Overall, up to a quarter of full costs of pumping from declining groundwater India's harvest has been estimated to be at risk levels (Shah 2009; Dubash 2007). The total annual due to groundwater depletion (Shah et al. 2000). economic cost of subsidized power remains The consequences for rural poverty and economic contested (mainly due to varying assumptions of growth are potentially serious, given that 60 transmission and distribution losses, the use of off- percent of Indians, particularly the poor, depend peak power, and the unreliability or intermittence on agriculture for their livelihoods. of the supply), but has been estimated at Rs 260 billion, growing annually at 26 percent (Shah et Environmental degradation al. 2007). Subsidized agricultural power supply is putting an unsustainable burden on state budgets While the environmental concerns related to and is the prime cause of bankruptcy of the state groundwater generally focus on impacts pertaining electricity boards in India. to pollution and quality degradation, a range of environmental benefits accrue from groundwater Climate change in its natural state, and are consequently threatened by overexploitation. In India's highly variable As most groundwater systems react slowly monsoonal pattern of rainfall, with approximately to changes that occur on the earth's surface, 50 percent of the annual precipitation falling in 15 groundwater acts as an important buffer against days in many areas, groundwater makes a crucial the hydrological variability of surface water Introduction 5 resources. In water-scarce years, farmers and the potential social and economic consequences of utilities resort to groundwater to compensate for inaction are huge. Concern regarding the looming inadequate rainfall and surface water supplies. crisis has been mounting in the government, and Increasing reliance on groundwater has insulated in 2005 the Planning Commission constituted an irrigated Indian agriculture to a great degree from expert group to review the issue of groundwater the vagaries of the monsoon. A deficit in rainfall in management and suggest appropriate policy 1963­1966 decreased India's food production by directions (Planning Commission 2007). The World almost 20 percent and placed the country on the Bank's Water Resources Assistance Strategy for India brink of famine, whereas a similar drought in 1987­ (World Bank 2005) also emphasized groundwater 1988 had a negligible impact on food production, overexploitation as a critical water sector challenge essentially due to the widespread prevalence of for India, and advocated developing pragmatic groundwater irrigation (Sharma and Mehta 2002, solutions instead of continuing the failed command cited in Shah 2007). Precipitation forecasts for India and control approaches. Accordingly, the World under the likely climate change scenarios suggest Bank Study and Technical Assistance Initiative on higher but more variable rainfall, except in the drier Groundwater Management in India was conceived parts, where rainfall could decrease. The scenarios with the purpose of supporting the development also predict reduced glacier cover in the Himalayas of approaches that are realistic and actionable in and associated reductions in the base flows of the the current environment. Himalayan rivers. Conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water can be a key adaptation strategy Objectives and scope in such situations, and groundwater's role in sustaining production and livelihoods would The aim of the World Bank's Study and Technical therefore become even more important. At the same Assistance Initiative on Groundwater Management time, the changing patterns of rainfall and runoff was to develop a management framework that are expected to significantly impact groundwater is not only based on analytical work but is also recharge and availability (Massachusetts Institute informed by the operational experience of piloting of Technology 2008), adding a further dimension various groundwater management interventions of uncertainty to this critical resource. in different settings in India. The initiative was accordingly designed with the following specific objectives: World Bank Study and Technical Assistance Initiative on Groundwater To identify management strategies Management in India (including companion institutional and legal arrangements) for promoting sustainable Background groundwater use in India, within a Over the past 50 years India has become extremely systematic, economically sound, and dependent on groundwater, which has provided an politically feasible framework informal but remarkably successful private coping To provide focused technical support for strategy in the absence of reliable formal public water enhancing the outcomes of groundwater supply systems. However, intensive groundwater management interventions under the World use has started to result in falling water tables Bank-financed projects in participating states and a growing number of overexploited aquifers, particularly in western and peninsular India. Since The scope of work was structured to combine aquifer depletion is concentrated in many of the analytical activity on various aspects of most populated and economically productive areas, groundwater management in the country with 6 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India elements of technical assistance to groundwater Similarly, an assessment of the implications interventions in selected states participating in of climate change for groundwater use and the initiative. management was not included in the scope of this work. Although increased hydrological Developing a "Plan B" variability raises the uncertainty surrounding groundwater recharge and availability, and The central and state government counterparts also increases the relative importance of consulted during the scoping phase emphasized more dependable groundwater reserves as that despite the extensive scholarship available a key adaptation strategy, climate change on the subject of groundwater overexploitation in does not alter the basic assessments India directions for action remained unclear. Senior and recommendations emerging from decision makers were almost unanimous in the view this initiative for sound groundwater that the high-level legal and policy reforms that are management practices in India. often proposed as the solution for groundwater management have no takers in India because Process and audience they are unviable in the current political economy. However, as taking no action is not an alternative The initiative activities were strategically for a resource as critical and as unmanaged selected for addressing the issue of groundwater as groundwater, assistance was requested for overexploitation in a range of groundwater developing a "Plan B", which would focus on settings across India, taking into account the pragmatic and politically feasible approaches physical, socioeconomic, and institutional that can make incremental improvements largely dimensions of groundwater resource use. within the existing institutional framework, and Accordingly a number of analytical studies, that can build the political support for gradual and field surveys, reviews, and assessments were realistic institutional improvements at higher levels undertaken, targeting different dimensions by first demonstrating successful interventions at of the subject. In parallel, technical assistance local level. was provided for design and implementation of groundwater-related components in five World This mandate is reflected in the scope of the Bank-supported projects in Andhra Pradesh, initiative: Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh. In addition, a The initiative emphasizes the political preliminary assessment on specific groundwater- feasibility of recommended approaches. related issues was also conducted at the request Given past failed experiences, policy of the Punjab government. prescriptions are of limited use unless they A large part of the effort is geographically focused have a reasonable chance of implementation in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, which were under the prevailing political economy. selected as key participating states primarily The initiative focuses on the development due to their heavy dependence on groundwater of management approaches for addressing use, growing concern about overexploitation groundwater overexploitation. In order of aquifers, and expression of strong interest in to avoid a dilution of focus, issues of participating in this Study and Technical Assistance deteriorating groundwater quality and Initiative. A number of ongoing and proposed potential for groundwater development in World Bank-supported projects in these states certain Indian states were not included in the also meant that advantage could be taken of the scope of work. learning opportunities afforded by groundwater Introduction 7 management pilots and the strong existing of sharing, discussing, and testing emerging relationships with the state agencies. In addition ideas with government counterparts as well as a to engagements in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, broad range of stakeholders. Table 1.1 provides Punjab and Uttar Pradesh undertaken through this a summary listing of the various engagements initiative, lessons were compiled from the World undertaken by the World Bank's Study and Bank's experience on groundwater management Technical Assistance Initiative on Groundwater accumulated over the last decade in other Indian Management in India. states, including Haryana, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu, as well as from global experiences in Groundwater is primarily a responsibility of groundwater management. state governments in India, and therefore the primary counterparts and audience for this report A number of multistate, national, and include senior state-level decision makers who international workshops were also organized or are faced with the responsibility for addressing supported by this initiative, with the objective the challenge of groundwater overexploitation, Table 1.1 Summary list of activities under the World Bank Study and Technical Assistance Initiative on Groundwater Management in India Engagements Preparation of state strategy papers 1 Maharashtra 2 Andhra Pradesh Technical assistance to World Bank projects 3 Maharashtra Water Sector Improvement Project 4 Maharashtra Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project 5 Andhra Pradesh Community Tanks Project 6 Uttar Pradesh Water Sector Restructuring Project 7 Andhra Pradesh Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project Theme papers 8 Strengthening and transforming the role of state-level groundwater management agencies: A key element for the promotion of sustainable resource use 9 Analysis of organizational options and instruments for sustainable groundwater management in India 10 Literature review of groundwater management experience in India 11 Review of lessons from the World Bank's cumulative groundwater management experience in India Analytical work 12 Study on actual role and potential of groundwater for Aurangabad municipal water supply 13 Technical and socioeconomic assessment of community self-regulation of groundwater use in Maharashtra 14 Modeling of groundwater use behavior in rural India using a linked agricultural-hydrological model 15 Data collection and remote sensing analysis for groundwater impact assessment of Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems Project Dissemination and training 16 National conference on groundwater pricing and ownership (support to Central Ground Water Board) 17 Multistate technical workshop on emerging lessons for community-based groundwater management 18 Lessons for community-based groundwater management (joint East Asia and South Asia training on groundwater management) 8 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India and state departments and agencies charged The report also targets the global community of with groundwater management. At the central groundwater management practitioners, and it is government level, the primary counterpart is hoped that the examples of politically feasible and the Central Ground Water Board (under the local context-specific approaches recommended Union Ministry of Water Resources), which is the for different groundwater settings in India can be apex organization for groundwater surveying useful in informing the design of groundwater and exploration, development, monitoring, management interventions in similar settings management, and regulation in the country. elsewhere in the world. Introduction 9 You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground Introduction definition of groundwater as a public or private good; presence and type Groundwater resource availability is determined of groundwater rights regime; and by the physical environment, with hydrogeology relationship of groundwater rights being the primary determinant. But a much wider with landholding range of factors, from the local to the macro The administrative environment, level, influence the dynamics of groundwater including groundwater-related use. While the physical and socioeconomic regulations and organizations responsible environment in which groundwater resources for implementing them; the presence of occur varies tremendously across the face dedicated state groundwater agencies, of India, the influence of higher-level factors and their mandates and capacity to tends to be systemic. A rough categorization of implement; and the position of state the determinants of groundwater use can be groundwater agencies within the presented as follows: governmental hierarchy and their The physical environment, including relationships with other departments the hydrogeological characteristics of dealing with water resources local groundwater bodies and surface The macroeconomic environment, water availability including sector policies with indirect but The socioeconomic environment, including substantial impacts on groundwater (for the nature of economic activity, patterns example, free or nominal-cost power for of population density and water and the agricultural sector, or support prices for groundwater use, and societal norms water-intensive crops such as sugar cane and paddy) The institutional environment, which The political environment, including includes the following dimensions: democratic tradition and maturity, The legal environment, including the incentives for management, and the roles and responsibilities for groundwater political feasibility of implementing various management in the federal setup; policy and management measures You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 11 The challenge of addressing groundwater been overlooked in the discourse around management needs to be examined in this groundwater management. nested and multilayered environmental context (Figure 2.1), with due attention to the specific In order to ensure that groundwater management characteristics of the problem at each level. approaches are informed by and responsive to local realities, this report proposes an analytical India is characterized physically by several framework that draws specifically on a typology distinctive hydrogeological settings, which, of India's overexploited aquifers, and takes combined with population and water use into account their main hydrogeological and patterns, influence the nature of groundwater resource use characteristics. This chapter sets use and the peculiar challenge of groundwater out the physical context for groundwater management in each setting. Therefore, what resource management and indicates the type of is collectively referred to as "groundwater management approach and measures most likely overexploitation" is actually a range of problems to be appropriate to each typology. Chapter 3 then that can differ widely from one another, presents a broader analysis of the institutional depending on the setting. Nevertheless, these environment governing groundwater use and important local characteristics have frequently management options. Figure 2.1 Major determinants of groundwater management sustainability UNION & STATE GOVERNMENT MACRO-LEVEL INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS Groundwater Groundwater Political Economic legislation administration economy policy SOCIOECONOMIC BEHAVIOUR OF USERS LOCAL - LEVEL GROUNDWATER RESOURCE SUSTAINABILITY HYDROGEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF AQUIFER 12 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Figure 2.2 Key types and properties of the most widely occurring aquifer types REGIONAL GROUNDWATER STORAGE GROUNDWATER FLOW small medium large very large minor WCB MAF moderate IVF CSA major RCL Weathered Crystalline Recent Coastal Inter- Montane Consolidated Major Alluvial Basement Limestones Valley Fill Sedimentary Aquifers Formations deeply weathered coral limestone and unconsolidated sandstones or unconsolidated igneous / skeletal detritus sediments (pebbles , limestones with sediments (gravels, metamorphic often only loosely gravels, sands) consolidation and sands, silts), spatially rocks producing a cemented; fringing sometimes with fracturing increasing extensive and of thin mantle of low coastlines or islands volcanic lavas/ tuffs with depth/age; large thickness permeability; and lacustrine clays; variable, but can very extensive low- moderate extension form thick aquifers yielding aquifer but can be thick Source: GW-MATE BN-2. The essential foundation of A first-pass characterization can normally be made groundwater characterization: A from information that is already available. For context for resource management the present purposes, and to simplify the picture significantly, hydrogeological settings in India The underground (hydrogeological) and above- can be divided into two main and contrasting ground (socioeconomic) settings shape the dynamics categories, described below and shown in Figure of groundwater resource use. Therefore, while a broad 2.3. The approximate area under these settings in and nationally uniform approach to groundwater use selected states of India is presented in Table 2.1. management may be simple to promulgate, it would not be effective in responding to particular local needs. Hard-rock aquifers of peninsular India. Globally emerging practice also points towards a more These belong to the "weathered crystalline local and decentralized approach to groundwater basement" category shown in Figure 2.2. resource management, with administration at Mostly outside the command of the primary the regional government or river basin level and irrigation canals of large rivers, these shallow operations at the district or subbasin level. aquifers represent around 65 percent of India's overall aquifer surface area. Most of Understanding and characterizing the groundwater these aquifers are found in central peninsular resource is thus the key prerequisite for devising India, where the land is typically underlain a sensible management framework, as the by hard-rock formations. Deccan Trap hydrogeological setting defines resource potential basalts cover most of Maharashtra, while a and susceptibility to irreversible degradation. granite basement complex predominates The most commonly occurring types of aquifers elsewhere. These hard-rock formations give worldwide are shown in Figure 2.2, along with their rise to a complex and extremely extensive comparative storage capacities and groundwater low-storage aquifer system. Although these flow potentials. aquifers are partially recharged following You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 13 each monsoon, the total available storage aquifers display a high degree of spatial of groundwater in hard-rock aquifers is variation in local storage characteristics and variable and is strictly limited by the hard recharge processes. rock's weathering characteristics and water- Alluvial aquifers of the Indo-Gangetic bearing properties. Water yields tend to plains. These include the Gangetic and drop very rapidly once the water table falls Indus alluvial plains, large parts of which are by more than 2­6 meters. Overall, these within the command of primary irrigation Figure 2.3 Main hydrogeological provinces of India N PUNJAB UTTAR PRADESH Lucknow MAHARASHTRA Aurangabad 0 500 Km Area of < 1000 mm av. annual rainfall ANDHRA PRADESH 1000 mm average annual rainfall isohyet Alluvial & Coastal Deposits Other Formations Deccan Trap Basalts Weathered Hard-Rock Granite Basement Complex Aquifers Fold mountain chain State boundaries 14 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Table 2.1 Main groundwater settings in selected states of India Approximate Area (%) Weathered hard-rock aquifers Alluvial & Granite coastal/ Deccan Trap basement floodplain State basalts complex Sum deposits Other formations Andhra Pradesh 3 65 68 14 18 Gujarat 30 7 37 52 10 Haryana 0 2 0 98 0 Karnataka 7 90 97 2 1 Kerala 0 75 75 25 0 Madhya Pradesh 49 12 61 15 24 Maharashtra 77 15 92 5 3 Punjab 0 0 0 97 3 Rajasthan 5 25 30 55 15 Tamil Nadu 0 73 73 22 5 Uttar Pradesh 0 20 20 70 10 Source: Estimates based on Central Ground Water Board 2006. canals. These also include the older elevated larger than the annual groundwater replenishment, alluvial plains where the water table is deeper whereas in most of inland Maharashtra, stored and coverage of irrigation canals is not so groundwater represents only 1­5 times the annual extensive. These areas are underlain by major rate of resource renewal. aquifers with moderate-to-high yields and very large storage, constituting an extremely Superimposed on and interacting with the valuable source of freshwater supply. underground physical realities of aquifers are the Recharge rates that are low relative to storage, differing water use and demand dynamics. The combined with the common occurrence of first major above-ground distinction in this regard saline groundwater at greater depths, can put is that between rural and urban areas. In rural these large alluvial aquifers at risk of aquifer areas, groundwater provides both drinking water mining and irreversible overexploitation. and irrigation supplies, with the latter being far Only a few large aquifers are found south of more significant in terms of volume. In contrast, the Indo-Gangetic plains. groundwater is predominantly a source of drinking and industrial water supply in urban areas. Understanding the drivers of groundwater demand It is important to emphasize that in India the primary driver of private groundwater use is As described above, different types of neither resource availability nor well yield potential hydrogeological settings are associated with (Shah 2007), but the inadequacy and unreliability specific aquifer types that vary widely in their of water provided through the public water supply capacity to transmit and to store groundwater, systems, in the face of escalating water demands. surface area, thickness, and replenishment levels It is therefore also useful to consider whether areas (normally termed recharge). In Uttar Pradesh, are wholly dependent on groundwater or also storage in thick aquifers is probably 200­500 times benefit from access to surface water, most notably You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 15 Figure 2.4 Shallow borewell construction costs in 2007 for Aurangabad City MAF 200 IVF CSA RCL 170 (58%) Most residential bore wells with capital cost less than US$ 600/ Rs 27,000 150 Total sampled 294 Commercial wells No. of water wells sampled Residential wells 100 Institutional wells (N.B. costs about 20% higher in groundwater-depleted 70 and/or low-potential areas) (24%) 50 35 (12%) 12 7 (4%) (2%) 0 400­500 500­600 600­700 700­800 800 + US $ 18000­22500 22500­27000 27000­31500 31500­36000 36000­40500 Rs Water well construction cost range Source: Study on actual role and potential of groundwater for Aurangabad municipal water supply, 2008 (background analytical work for this initiative). canal irrigation. Although not yet formally and which translates into very high transaction costs of systematically practiced, there is great potential monitoring and regulating. for conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater to meet rising demand in both rural Table 2.2 shows the more general socioeconomic drivers for groundwater use and resource status for and urban settings. selected states in India. Finally, the nature of the user also matters. The size The effect of these factors is further magnified by a of average landholdings can vary markedly from series of secondary drivers, including state to state. Large commercial exploitations mean fewer users, and hence greater ease in monitoring flat rate or highly subsidized rural electricity and regulating. However, most of the states in India for irrigation well pumping; are dominated by smallholder agriculture, implying the low cost of well (especially borewell) small plot sizes and large numbers of tubewells, construction and equipment (Figure 2.4) 16 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Table 2.2 Groundwater resource and socioeconomic aspects in selected states Socioeconomic Groundwater resource status status Socioeconomic drivers for groundwater demand and pollution Drinking water Irrigated agriculture Industries In-storage groundwater resource (cubic kilometers) (alluvium, hard rocks) Net annual groundwater availability (cubic kilometers) Annual use (cubic kilometers) Groundwater development (%) Critical and overexploited units (%) Per capita income as percent of all India average Poverty index (% of population) Population density as percent of all India average Gross irrigated area (million hectares) Marginal to medium landholdings (% of landholdings < 10 hectares) Large landholdings (% of landholdings > 10 hectares) High-water-demanding (rice, wheat, sugar cane) (% of gross area) Irrigated with groundwater (% of gross area) Power consumption (gigawatt hours/cubic kilometer) High-water-demanding industries Number of wells (million), as at March 2006 State Andhra Pradesh 10 33 15 45 24 92 16 84 5 92 8 66 39 1,131 Low 1.92 Gujarat 10 15 12 76 19 114 17 83 4 89 11 29 63 1,160 High 0.78 Haryana 42 9 10 109 66 129 14 146 5 77 23 65 29 696 High 0.47 Karnataka 2 15 11 70 68 84 25 84 3 89 11 37 34 1,024 High 1.36 Kerala 1 6 3 47 13 114 15 82 0.4 93 7 40 28 128 Low 0.44 Madhya Pradesh 4 35 17 48 9 54 38 60 6 84 16 86 64 388 Low 2.77 Maharashtra 4 31 15 48 2 125 31 96 4 93 7 36 50 804 High 2.45 Punjab 91 21 31 145 79 124 8 147 8 73 27 79 40 276 Low 0.75 Rajasthan 13 10 13 125 80 66 22 50 7 60 40 33 60 520 Low 0.63 Tamil Nadu 10 21 18 85 46 105 23 146 2 93 7 56 52 610 High 1.66 Uttar Pradesh 350 70 49 70 7 46 33 102 18 97 3 82 52 513 High 2.61 All India 1,081 399 230 58 19 100 28 100 55 87 13 28 48 524 19.59 You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 17 as a result of Indian manufacturing consider the dynamics of depletion of aquifer ingenuity; reserves. The term "aquifer overexploitation" applies to a physically unsustainable situation in support prices for some crops with very high which the extraction of groundwater exceeds the consumptive use of water, such as paddy rice replenishment (commonly termed "recharge") and sugar cane. within a given area over a given period of time. However, the definition can be difficult to apply in Typology of aquifers and users certain situations, for example: Based on the aquifer characteristics (below Major groundwater recharge episodes occur ground) and resource use patterns (above ground), only once in decades, as in many arid to a typology of intensively exploited groundwater semiarid climates (such as parts of north- settings is proposed (Table 2.3). It is important western India). to emphasize that this typology of intensively exploited aquifers is only intended to provide Aquifer storage is very small (such as in a general framework for analysis. There may be some weathered hard-rock aquifers) and significant variations in hydrogeological conditions is fully replenished and virtually emptied and resource use at the micro level within a typology, every year. and more specific analyses of the hydrogeological Natural aquifer discharge, and associated and socioeconomic characteristics remain critical stream base flow, is important for the for tailoring management needs. environment or for downstream users. Assessing when groundwater Therefore, while the usual classification of exploitation becomes excessive groundwater blocks (based on an assessment of levels of extraction relative to recharge) provides Since the focus of this report is excessive a workable physical indicator of overexploitation, exploitation (often termed "overexploitation") the bottom-line concern for management is of groundwater resources, it is necessary to that the direct and indirect environmental and Table 2.3 Typologies of intensively exploited aquifers in India Land use General & specific hydrogeological environment Resource use Focus states in this study Widespread weathered hard-rock (basalt or Subsistence and Andhra Pradesh, Hard-rock granite) aquifers with shallow, low-storage commercial agricultural Maharashtra terrains of patchy groundwater bodies exploitations, drinking peninsular Occasional but important groundwater water supply, some India bodies in coastal or graben fill sedimentary Maharashtra industries aquifers Rural Alluvial aquifers, in plains largely within Major alluvial major irrigation canal commands with Uttar Pradesh formations Mainly subsistence and naturally shallow water table of rural Indo- commercial agricultural Alluvial aquifers in the older elevated Gangetic exploitations alluvial plains, with more limited irrigation Punjab plains canals and deeper water table Weathered hard-rock aquifers with shallow, Individual urban Urban Maharashtra Urban low-storage patchy groundwater bodies households, water utilities, environment Major alluvial aquifers in alluvial plains industries, tourism Uttar Pradesh 18 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India socioeconomic costs of groundwater exploitation be organized and mobilized to confront the must not outweigh the benefits accrued. The groundwater management challenge. multiple and multiplier effects of declining water tables ­ for example deeper drilling depths, The following sections look at these issues for the decreasing well yields and frequent well failures two main groundwater settings that are threatened resulting in increasing farmer expenditures and by overexploitation in India: the hard-rock aquifers debt, and failures of local drinking water supply and the deep alluvial aquifers. Given the very sources ­ also provide a set of indirect indicators different dynamics of rural and urban groundwater of overexploitation, and emphasize the need for use, each is considered separately in the context of considering its distributive aspects as well, which the two aforementioned settings. affect the poor disproportionately in both rural It is clear that to correct a condition of serious and urban settings. Furthermore, the long-term imbalance ("overexploitation") of groundwater environmental concerns pertaining to the health resources, technical interventions that reduce of the groundwater resource, for example the groundwater demand or increase groundwater susceptibility of the aquifer systems to rapid and availability will be required, by one implementation irreversible degradation (through salinization or route or another. In a broad scope these technical compaction with associated land subsidence), interventions include: also need to be considered. Therefore, while a simple index of groundwater exploitation levels Demand-side measures. These refer to the (as currently used) is useful as a basic tool for interventions that, when applied at field, identifying problem areas, it may not be a sufficient village, district, state, or federal level, have the indicator in many settings, where a broader context effect of significantly reducing consumptive of environmental and socioeconomic dimensions groundwater use. Demand management can of overexploitation will be needed both for result in producing true water savings only understanding the nature of the problem and for if it targets those volumes of water that are devising management solutions. normally not returned to groundwater via seepage or other return flows. Hence, in urban Exploitation concerns and management settings demand-side management could approaches include increased water tariffs as a means of reducing the total demand for groundwater. An overall approach for the definition and However, if most of the leakage from mains implementation of groundwater resource and distribution networks is going back as management measures would comprise an initial recharge to the local aquifers, reducing this phase of appraisal of the resource setting (both leakage will not produce any real groundwater hydrogeological and socioeconomic), followed savings even though it will improve the water by identification of the types of management delivery efficiency of the water utility system. measures at micro (and possibly macro) level that Similarly, in rural agricultural settings, demand are required to achieve a given level of groundwater management includes all measures that are resource stability. It will then be necessary, in each capable of (a) reducing the net consumptive individual case, to decide how such measures water use requirement in agriculture; (b) might be implemented and by whom, giving reducing nonbeneficial evapotranspiration consideration to the balance between state from fields; and (c) reducing the size of any regulation and community self-regulation, and nonrecoverable fraction of nonconsumptive how government and the community might use of water in agriculture (such as seepage You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 19 to saline water bodies as opposed to areas under cultivation, thereby resulting in no irrigation returns to fresh groundwater). lasting improvement in aquifer sustainability. In Hence, technical interventions such as shifts the case of aquifer recharge enhancement, the in the cropping pattern (resulting in reduced associated reductions in streamflow are not usually consumptive water use requirement) and factored in, and yet can have negative impacts for improved irrigation technology (reducing downstream users. In sum, technical interventions nonbeneficial evapotranspiration and on the demand and supply sides do not provide possibly reducing nonrecoverable losses) a magic solution, but will almost always need to can be effective demand management be implemented alongside other complementary measures in agriculture, but interventions groundwater management measures. need careful evaluation in the specific local circumstances to assess their respective Hard-rock terrains of rural peninsular India water-saving potential. Manageable groundwater bodies Conjunctive use. In settings where Deep tropical weathering of hard-rock formations both surface water and groundwater are in peninsular India has created an extensive, low- important, conjunctive management of storage, aquifer system that is annually recharged the two resources to better align use with to varying degrees by the monsoonal rains. The availability can reduce local areas of excessive very large area underlain by weathered hard-rock and unsustainable groundwater use, formations can be subdivided into two main groups improve surface water delivery in scarcity- with somewhat different characteristics: prone areas, and simultaneously increase the overall land and water productivity in the Weathered Deccan Trap basalts, which case of irrigated agriculture. exhibit considerable variation in the depth of weathering and landscape evolution. Groundwater recharge enhancement. Physical engineering measures can be Weathered granitic basement, in which implemented to retard and retain the runoff away from topographic highs the weathering from seasonal precipitation and to provide is generally more uniform, but typologies of conditions more conducive to infiltration significantly differing groundwater potential to groundwater, with the objective of (well yield and exploitable storage) are increasing the amount of precipitation stored present. in aquifers. In both cases, however, the aquifers are shallow, Successful technical interventions tend to be with relatively low storage, and rather patchy. context specific, and a careful scrutiny of the These aquifers are capable of providing small hydrological balance at different local scales is yields to dug wells and borewells and are critical for required for their specification. This can sometimes drinking water supply in the drought-prone lands. reveal that some options may not be as positive In hard-rock aquifer settings across the world, this for groundwater resource sustainability as scarce natural resource is used only for drinking initially hoped for, particularly when external water supply, meeting pastoral demands, or high- factors are taken fully into account. For example, value industrial use. In India however, a rather real groundwater resource savings achieved unique confluence of different factors has resulted through the introduction of innovative cropping in these aquifers becoming widely exploited for measures are frequently offset by increases in agricultural irrigation. 20 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Figure 2.5 Cross-section of groundwater occurrence in weathered Deccan Trap basalt terrain indicating varying resource potential and management implications Seasonal Perennial Groundwater body Runoff zone (recharge zone) (storge zone) In this area water wells tend to fail Deeply weathered horizons annually during rabi or jawaad forming hard - rock aquifer MAF Permanently saturated ground season - extent of this area will vary IVF with antecedent monsoon rainfall water reservoir and level of groundwater pumping Intermittent groundwater Massive CSA seasonally reducing as a result Seepage RCL of pumping and/or seepage Colluvial vertical scale deposits Vesicular 100m Small river with Massive monsoon and some post - monsoon ow Vesicular Massive 0 2 km (vertical exaggeration x40) Extremely limited ­ associated Patchy limited storage and yield, "Groundwater body" of limited with localized weathered pockets draining repidly after monsoon extension and modest storage but Groundwater and occasional thin flows of more recharge­used for village water capable of useful well yields for resource potential fractured or porous basalt. supply and sometimes for rabi both kharif and rabi irrigation (or irrigation but suffers severe yield perennial crop production) on reductions during Feb-May. significant land area. Scope for augmenting existing Establish performance of existing Groundwater available but good Village water wells should be evaluated and water wells and potential for sources required for larger villages­ water supply groundwater pockets associated with recharge enhancement. Village- sometimes necessary for village-level improvement structural featurres may be worth level water committee must protect water committee to requisition options pursuing - but may be insufficient improved sources from irrigation irrigation wells for village supply or to and need supplementing periodically well construction. reduce interference on village wells. by tanker. Not needed but village-level water No systematic approach necessary Form aquifer-level organization for Approach to committee involvement for improved or feasible but village-level water "groundwater body " by village­ groundwater sanitary and pollution protection of committee could participate in level water committee and other resource any existing water wells and small aquifer-level organization because stakeholders to regulate dry season management springs. of recharge significance of zone. irrigation use, facilitate water savings and resolve conflicts. Only very small villages that have Occasional larger village­kharif More densely populated­irrigation of difficulty in finding sufficient water for irrgation but little rabi cropping, rabi and/or perennial crops practiced Socioeconomic domestic needs and livestock watering, thus population has to migrate on significant proportion of land area development level and struggle for subsistence given only seasonally to work in irrigated (15-25%) but competition for available dryland farming (insufficient water agriculture or urban industrial areas. storage can lead to conflicts between availability for irrigation). irrigators and drinking water supply. Within these hard-rock formations, the groundwater do not exist per se. Figures 2.5 and 2.6 provide bodies (permanently saturated water bodies with instances of significantly varying resource potential sufficient interannual storage to support significant at the local level in hard-rock formations, and its summer season irrigation and to warrant some type implications for groundwater management. It is of systematic management approach to resource clear that there is little incentive for groundwater allocation) are of restricted spatial distribution. management in those parts of microwatersheds Outside these groundwater bodies, obtaining rural that are dominated by surface water runoff and drinking water supplies and some limited rabi do not possess significant perennially saturated season irrigation may be possible from localized aquifers (groundwater bodies). Trying to mobilize or ephemeral groundwater-bearing fractures, but participation in groundwater management the possibilities for groundwater management initiatives in these areas has questionable merit, You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 21 Figure 2.6 Cross-section of groundwater occurrence in weathered granitic basement terrain indicating varying resource potential and management implications Seasonal (recharge zone ) Runoff Perennial may be linked to finer grained Groundwater body zone (storage zone metamorphic crystalline rocks 460 MAF 460 Minor stream intermittent IVF 440 Seepage monsoon ow 440 mASL 420 420 400 400 Deeply weathered horizons forming hard-rock aquifer 0 5 km Permanently saturated groundwater reservoir * In these areas water wells tend to fail annually during rabi or Intermittent groundwater jawaad season ­ extent of this area will vary with antecedent body seasonally reducing monsoon rainfall and level of groundwater pumping Continuous groundwater body of limited extension and Patchy limited storage and yield, draining rapidly Groundwater resource storage but capable of useful well yields for both kharif and after monsoon recharge ­ used for village water potential rabi irrigation (or perennial crop production) over significant supply and sometimes for rabi irrigation but land areas. suffers severe yield reductions during Feb-May. Groundwater available but good sources required for larger Establish performance of existing water wells and Village water supply villages sometimes necessary for village-level water committee potential for recharge enhancement. Village-level improvement options to requisition irrigation wells for village supply or to reduce water committee must protect improved sources interference on village wells. from irrigation well construction. Form aquifer-level organization for "groundwater body" by No systematic approach necessary or feasible Approach to village-level water committee and other stakeholders to but village-level water committee could groundwater resource regulate dry season irrigation use, facilitate water savings and participate in aquifer-level organization because management resolve conflicts. of upstream-downstream linkages. More densely populated ­ irrigation of rabi and/or perennial Occasional larger village ­ some kharif irrigation Socioeconomic jawaad crops practiced on significant proportion of land area but only limited rabi cropping, thus population development level but competition for available storage can lead to conflicts has to migrate seasonally to work in irrigated between irrigators and drinking water supply. agriculture or urban industrial areas. unless the people in these areas are an integral part the past 40 years, there has been extremely rapid of the benefiting village panchayat, or payments growth in the number of borewells since 1980, are made for their land and water management with millions more having been added and typical efforts. The key message, which is also one of depths steadily increasing from about 30 meters to the salient conclusions of this report, is that over 60 meters. groundwater management needs to be intensively Over most of the drought-prone areas of hard-rock context specific, as the physical realities can vary India rainfall averages 500­800 millimeters per year, significantly even at the microwatershed scale. but is highly concentrated in a single monsoonal season during which natural recharge rates are Dynamics of overextraction in hard-rock aquifers believed to average 60­90 millimeters per year. In In peninsular India, while there has not been a contrast, groundwater extraction rates have grown significant increase in the number of dug wells over to reach an equivalent of 100 ­180 millimeters per 22 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India year in the late 1990s, with heavy population and pumping head losses and energy costs (profile e3) cultivation densities, and energy subsidies often with little increase in volume of water supply (profile insulating the groundwater users from the costs of Q3). Therefore, while investment in well drilling in escalating energy consumption. all hard-rock terrains is always a gamble (in terms of obtaining a sustained yield sufficient for mechanized As a consequence the water tables of most irrigation pumping), the risks increase greatly when groundwater bodies have declined steadily from the through excessive exploitation the water table falls late 1980s (showing only partial recovery in years below the weathered zone horizon. of exceptional rainfall), with a widespread net fall in premonsoonal water levels of 15­20 meters over However, the widespread existence of flat rate 25 years. In many areas the groundwater table now electricity tariffs has allowed extremely inefficient stands almost permanently below the weathered pumping practices to arise and to persist, with zone, as shown by the drying up of traditional dug farmers continuing to operate tubewell pumps wells early during the rabi season. at groundwater levels that are far too low and at which pumping losses are very high, and leaving The total available storage of these groundwater pumps switched on to obtain a supply whenever bodies is strictly limited by their weathering the power supply activates (since it is not operating characteristics and water-bearing properties, and according to a regular schedule). declines markedly as the water table falls through the most productive zone, which is situated typically Such practices would be completely uneconomic 10­20 meters below the land surface (shaded in if farmers felt the full cost of the electrical energy Figure 2.7). If groundwater resource abstraction consumed. The consequences are clearly reflected significantly exceeds average recharge rates and in the data on rural electrical energy consumption this horizon is rapidly dewatered (to gwl3 and for pumping in Andhra Pradesh (Table 2.4) showing below in Figure 2.7), it leads to dramatic increases in that more than 10 times as much energy is required Figure 2.7 Hydrogeological profile of an Indian weathered hard-rock aquifer system with indicative pumping yields and energy costs RCL AQUIFER PROPERTIES TUBEWELL YIELD VARIATION (Q) permeability (K) / transmissivity (T) pumping evergy cost (e) pre-development Q gwl depth will vary spatially with geological build minimum groundwater level fractured zone is 25m but varies weathered and geomorphological evolution typical depth to base of zone considerably Q gwl T K main fractured groundwater Q gwl zone producing horizon e e Q Q Q e unweathered zone deeper fractures or bedding planes can occasionally generate additional groundwater yield but little storage You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 23 now to irrigate only 2 times the area in 1980, which efficiency and overheating rather than generating suggests that the disproportionate increase in additional irrigation water supply. electrical energy consumption is due in significant part to a marked deterioration in pumping On the other hand, it is arguable that in political terms some form of rural energy subsidy (or other allowance) is justified to compensate for the great price differential for irrigation water supply between farmers outside irrigation canal commands (who are wholly dependent on groundwater) and those in the command areas where traditionally the hydraulic infrastructure has been provided free by the government and where irrigation water pricing recovers only a small fraction of operation and maintenance costs. But viewed from the groundwater perspective, the overriding need is to find a way of facilitating recovery of water table levels, such that the most productive horizon of weathered hard-rock aquifers remains partially saturated in the dry season. The benefits of such an outcome, however achieved, would be a major reduction in electricity consumption for only modest reductions in irrigation water supply availability. Realistic groundwater management measures Groundwater recharge enhancement Over the past decade or so, the predominant response to indications of excessive groundwater abstraction for agricultural irrigation has been to try to promote aquifer recharge enhancement in association with the implementation of rainwater harvesting techniques. Championed initially by advocates of watershed development and community stewardship of natural resources, artificial groundwater Husain Shikalgar, chairman of the Water Committee of Vardhangarh village (Satara, Maharashtra). He decided to grow soybeans and sunflower knowing recharge has gathered momentum both that these crops posed lesser risk of failure due to water scarcity. within and outside the government, 24 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Table 2.4 Historical evolution of groundwater use for irrigated agriculture and corresponding electrical energy consumption in Andhra Pradesh YEAR 1980­81 1998­99 2004­05 Number of irrigation water wells (million) 1.06 1.40 1.74 Area under irrigation with groundwater (million hectares) 1.12 1.76 2.48 Power consumption for pumping (gigawatt-hours) 920 10,220 12,240 Box 2.1 India's Groundwater Recharge Master Plan The National Groundwater Recharge Master Plan (Central Ground Water Board 2005) provides a nationwide assessment of the groundwater recharge potential and outlines the guiding principles for an artificial groundwater recharge program. The plan estimates that through dedicated recharge structures in rural areas and rooftop water harvesting structures in urban areas a total of 36 billion cubic meters can be added to groundwater recharge, at a cost of approximately US$6 billion (Rs 25,000 crores). The additional quantity of groundwater amounts to approximately 15 percent of India's total current groundwater use. The Groundwater Recharge Master Plan follows two criteria for identifying recharge: availability of surplus water and availability of storage space in aquifers. The investments in the program would therefore be driven by the potential available for groundwater recharge, and not by the need for recharge. This is clear when the funds allocated for recharge under the plan are examined on a state-by-state basis. The three states of Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu, which together account for over half of India's threatened groundwater blocks, receive only 21 percent of funds, whereas the states of the Ganga-Brahmaputra basin, which face no groundwater overdevelopment problems, receive 43 percent of the funds. The disparities are similarly marked in a district-level analysis of recharge potential and needs (Shah 2008). If implemented successfully, this recharge program will be able to add a significant quantity of water to India's groundwater storage, but it will not provide much help in the areas that are most in need of help. The Groundwater Recharge Master Plan illustrates the difficulties arising from disparate spatial variations in recharge potential and aquifer overexploitation, and also the limitations of recharge in addressing groundwater overexploitation in India. and there now exists a veritable groundwater recharged into and abstracted from groundwater. recharge movement in India (Sakthivadivel It is also in these settings that most of the global 2007). Both central and state governments experience in large-scale artificial recharge has have espoused the concept in a major been gained, with southwestern United States way, and investments are supported through and California being the leading examples (Shah dedicated recharge programs in urban and 2009). However, while recharge efforts in regions rural areas as well as being part of watershed with alluvial aquifer settings can have the most development programs. successful outcomes, most of the groundwater overexploitation problem in India lies elsewhere. The Following the analytical framework of major seven states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, aquifer typologies present in India, the relevance Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Tamil and value of artificial groundwater recharge needs Nadu account for more than 80 percent of critical to be assessed in the specific hydrogeological and and overexploited groundwater blocks in India, water use context of each aquifer setting. mostly in hard-rock aquifer settings. Therefore From the technical perspective, alluvial aquifers focusing recharge efforts in predominantly alluvial present the best opportunities for groundwater settings, as would happen if India's proposed recharge because of the large volumes that can be Groundwater Recharge Master Plan (Box 2.1) were You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 25 implemented, would miss the real problem areas Recharge in these areas therefore does not offer an of groundwater overexploitation. alternative solution, but a valuable complement that should ideally be reserved for priority local The first concern regarding reliance on recharge as a uses. Second, recharge programs on a large possible solution pertains to potential water yields scale inevitably affect the hydrological upstream from recharge interventions. Compared to alluvial downstream linkages, often adversely impacting aquifer settings, recharge potential in hard-rock downstream populations and ecosystems through areas is comparatively lower because of the limited reduced surface and groundwater availability surplus runoff and relatively limited storage space (Ray and Bijarnia 2006; Kumar et al. 2008). Third, in aquifers. Technical estimates of the possible analysis of available data from pilot projects shows increase in available groundwater if all the hard- that artificial recharging using dedicated recharge rock areas of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra were structures is quite expensive, with the cost of a cubic saturated using groundwater recharge structures meter of recharge water turning out higher than range from 15 to 20 percent of the current the expected gross returns from its use in irrigation sustainable yield levels.3 When compared with (Kumar et al. 2008). While there exist some localized the scale of overdevelopment of many threatened favorable hydrogeological conditions, such as groundwater blocks, it becomes clear that the escarpment and foothill locations, where recharge- gains of groundwater recharge do not come close based approaches can contribute significantly to to bridging the gap between supply and demand. improving the groundwater resource balance (the Figure 2.8 Hydrogeological profile of Deccan Trap basalt around Hiwre Bazaar (Maharashtra) illustrating favorable foothill conditions for recharge enhancement Village catchment larger than administrative area MICROWATERSHED LIMITS 850 PANCHAYAT (VILLAGE) BOUNDARY Favorable area for MAF recharge enhancement IVF 800 measures Massive basalt CSA RCL HIWRE BAZAAR Village center mASL 750 750 Vesicular basalt 700 700 1 km vertical exaggeration 650 x16 Weathered basalt Zone of water table uctuation Deeply fractured basalt Perennially saturated aquifer 3 Personal communication with Ground Water Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh, and Groundwater Survey and Development Agency, Government of Maharashtra, 2008. 26 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Table 2.5 Qualitative assessment of groundwater recharge enhancement measures How beneficial is artificial recharge? A summary of the arguments for and against For Against Increase in the volume of water available, which may Distracts attention from the more pressing need for irrigation be reserved for priority uses, for example drinking demand management and increasing productivity of scarce water supply or increased security for higher-value dry groundwater. Can give impression that a simple single solution to season crops groundwater resource problems exists Village groundwater sources can be improved in quality Upstream downstream impacts (on streamflow and irrigation tank and dry season yield filling) often ignored and never costed into scheme appraisal Stimulus for formation of village-level water resource Successful local recharge enhancement often just leads to more associations or committees active irrigation wells, with groundwater resource imbalance, Promotion of dialogue between local government, social competition, and sustainability problems continuing nongovernmental organizations, village authorities, and Not necessarily (or usually) focused on rural poverty reduction community on water resource issues (apart from creation of short-term employment in construction) Provision of work and mobilization of rural landless Results in terms of enhanced recharge have been mixed in most laborers in construction state-implemented programs well-known village of Hiwre Bazaar in Maharashtra overexploitation and recharge potential in the is a good example, see Figure 2.8), recharge major groundwater settings prevalent in India leads enhancement measures over large areas in hard- to the conclusion that at best artificial groundwater rock areas are subject to considerable physical recharge can be a part of the solution in certain constraints and will not be cost-effective (Kumar settings, but it is not a panacea nor a substitute et al. 2008). for the more difficult measures that are needed for addressing the problem of overexploited aquifers. An innovative concept to substantially lower the In sum, notwithstanding the growing strength costs of recharge involves use of millions of existing of the groundwater recharge movement and dug wells as recharge structures in peninsular India increasing public expenditure on it, India cannot (Shah 2008). The government of India has launched recharge its way out of the deepening hole of a US$450 million pilot recharge scheme based groundwater overexploitation. on this concept in the 100 districts that account for 60 percent of India's critical and overexploited Demand management in agriculture groundwater blocks. Even though the increase It follows that efforts to address excessive in groundwater availability would be relatively groundwater exploitation, however implemented, small, the cost-effectiveness of the interventions must concentrate largely on the promotion of is increased by the low cost of modifying a appropriate measures to manage demand. Possible well for recharge (as opposed to building new demand-side measures include: recharge structures) and the potential value of the incremental water in high-value uses such as the Dry-season crop planning for a part or whole protective irrigation of kharif crops. Even with such of the area depending on the aquifers, and innovative approaches, sustainability is not assured adjusting overall groundwater extraction unless institutional arrangements for managing and evaporative use in accordance with groundwater can be put in place. antecedent monsoonal rainfall or water table level. This would include, local Factors that argue for and against artificial conditions permitting, some degree of shift groundwater recharge are summarized in towards higher-value and lower-water- Table 2.5. A careful assessment of groundwater consumption crops. You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 27 Adoption of modern precision irrigation The characteristics of the hard-rock aquifers, whereby technologies, which can reduce evaporation groundwater depletion is not accompanied by or other nonbeneficial, nonrecoverable irreversible side-effects and where the drawdown fractions of water use in agriculture. Here effects of intensive abstraction are rather localized it has to be recognized that with current and essentially confined to the immediate area, irrigation practices, which predominantly also make these systems robust enough for involve traditional small-scale flood communities to attempt self-regulation. Chapter irrigation, a substantial proportion of total 4 is dedicated to the presentation of successful soil water losses is actually infiltration as community groundwater management experiences the applied irrigation water returns to in Andhra Pradesh, which has produced what is groundwater, and that reducing total soil arguably a global first in large-scale reductions water losses therefore does not necessarily in groundwater abstraction through community represent a real water saving. self-regulation of groundwater use. The report posits that this approach can be scaled up in the Restrictions to control groundwater state and even replicated, with due adjustments abstraction or use (enforced voluntarily or to local hydrogeological settings, socioeconomic through regulatory measures). These may conditions, and institutional setups, in other hard- include restricting the depth of irrigation rock states in India. water wells (for example by only using dug wells for irrigation), establishing and enforcing The fact that community-based approaches are minimum distances between irrigation water likely to offer the most effective and pragmatic wells, and setting up drilling prohibition means for groundwater management does not zones around public groundwater sources. (and must not) diminish the responsibility of state government agencies to take action, which needs While some elements of demand-side management to include: (for example adoption of precision irrigation technologies such as drip and sprinkler systems) provision of transparent information on are easier to implement than others (for example resource status; effecting cropping pattern shifts to reduce water demand), achieving overall reductions in extension support for the elaboration groundwater abstraction remains the most difficult of cropping plans developed to reduce challenge of groundwater management. The groundwater and energy use and main hard-rock states of India account for close concomitantly increase crop productivity per to 13 million irrigation wells, more than twice the unit of energy and water consumption; corresponding number for the states situated in the ensuring the sustainability, potential for alluvial plains (Shah 2009). This very large number scaling up, and replicability of community- of groundwater users distributed over an extensive based initiatives through appropriate support area makes it clear that broad-based regulation is incentives and oversight; unlikely to be the solution to problems of excessive exploitation in these settings. While the issue reform or realignment of policies in other of regulatory effectiveness is discussed in detail sectors acting as drivers of groundwater in the following chapter, it is clear that for most use, including looking at more creative ways hard-rock aquifer settings, groundwater resource for targeting the electrical energy subsidy management must primarily be founded upon and providing incentives for reductions in community-based groundwater management. electricity and groundwater use. 28 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Some exceptions in hard-rock areas needing a different these groundwater bodies may be under threat of approach irreversible degradation, for example from saline intrusion (upwelling of brackish water if the aquifer Over most of the vast subregion of hard-rock India keeps getting depleted, leading to its permanent the use of groundwater for irrigation is largely by salinization, as shown in Figure 2.9). subsistence farmers, who cultivate primarily to provide for their own family needs and sell any In cases where groundwater bodies under excess production only in local markets. exploitation for large-scale agroindustrial production or municipal water supply are at However, it should be noted that within this risk of irreversible degradation due to excessive subregion there are some small but important exploitation, there is a strong case for a greater groundwater bodies, in coastal or graben fill element of state regulation and investment in sedimentary aquifers such as those of the Tapi engineered recharge to provide a solid framework graben in Maharashtra and the Kortalaiyar basin in which demand management measures can be in Tamil Nadu, which offer much greater potential required of commercial groundwater users. in terms of water well yields and storage reserves. Their groundwater is often under exploitation for Since the total consumptive water requirement commercial agriculture with production of cash crops of highly profitable fruit cultivation even when (such as banana plantations and grape cultivation) using efficient systems of drip irrigation can be for major national markets and for export, and quite substantial (around 1,500 millimeters per also sometimes for large-scale abstraction for the year), achieving groundwater use sustainability urban water supply of municipal utilities. Due to a in these localized high-potential but susceptible combination of very intense resource exploitation aquifer systems will require a major long-term and the intrinsic susceptibility of the aquifer system, effort, including: Figure 2.9 Hydrogeological structure of the Tapi valley (Maharashtra) showing the major graben fill aquifer system prone to saline intrusion Satpura metres MAF Range (ASL) Ajanta IVF 800 0 800 Range pre- pumping 1980 50 mbgl 2000 600 600 fresh water risk of up-coning 100 of brackish water with continued brackish water aquifer depletion 400 150 400 Tapi Mor River River 200 200 0 0 0 20 km groundwater 1980 probable brackish table 2005 groundwater You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 29 enforcing an overall ceiling on irrigation exploitation, and care is needed when exploiting use through a system of individual and the deeper groundwater resources in these community-aggregated groundwater rights, settings. For the most part the alluvial aquifers thereby reducing the proportion of cultivated have good well yield potential (even where land area under irrigation; exploited by tubewells of only moderate depth), and are recharged directly from infiltrating innovative supply augmentation measures, monsoonal rainfall and in many areas indirectly such as use of excess wet season canal flows from surface water via irrigation canal leakage for aquifer recharge via existing dug wells. and excess field application. An example of such ongoing efforts to put In these formations groundwater resource groundwater abstractions on a sustainable basis availability and therefore the management needs comes from the Mendoza province in Argentina, vary significantly between: where a high-value agricultural economy based on world-class wine and fruit production in the alluvial plains largely within major Carrizal valley is threatened by groundwater irrigation canal commands, which have overexploitation and salinization (GW-MATE naturally shallow water tables and receive CP-6). The provincial irrigation and water resources major recharge from irrigation canal leakage authority has banned well drilling in critical areas, and excess field application; and is working to integrate the groundwater use older elevated alluvial areas with dimension in the framework of existing canal water more limited irrigation canal users associations. It is emerging that the existing commands, where the groundwater table is water rights system would need to be made considerably deeper. more flexible in order to allow better conjunctive use management of surface and groundwater Both these hydrogeological settings require resources, for example by convincing irrigators to further consideration in the present report, since relinquish their existing groundwater abstraction both are associated in one way or another with rights in favor of more reliable and enhanced continuously declining groundwater tables related surface water supplies. to excessive and unplanned resource exploitation for irrigated agriculture, especially in areas of less Major alluvial aquifers of the rural Indo- than 1,000 millimeters per year rainfall (Figure 2.3). Gangetic plains Moreover, in climate change scenarios predicting The vast alluvial tracts of the Ganga and Indus progressive reduction of Himalayan glaciers, river systems, with their many important and of the associated base flow in the Ganga tributaries, are underlain by extensive and river system, the vast groundwater reserves of frequently thick aquifer systems, with hundreds the alluvial deposits of the Indo-Gangetic plains of meters of layered sandy deposits and large would become the key resource in adaptation to storage reserves. In southwestern Uttar Pradesh new water resource realities. and large parts of south-central Punjab (and also Conjunctive use: Addressing the problem of too much and elsewhere, such as in parts of Haryana) the alluvial too little groundwater use in command areas sedimentary aquifer often contains saline water horizons. Where they occur within 100 meters or The alluvial tracts of the central part of the Ganga so of the surface these saline layers considerably valley are underlain by sediment deposits up to 600 complicate sustainable groundwater resource meters thick, forming the Gangetic plain Quaternary 30 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Figure 2.10 Sections illustrating overall scale of the Ganga alluvial aquifer system with inset illustrating surface water groundwater relations between major tributaries North South Siwalik Hill Range BHABAR GANGETIC PLAIN TERAI Ganga Yamuna Valley Valley 0 50 100 km vertical exaggeration x200 ZONE C B A B C G A N G A V A L L E Y Jaunpur Branch Canal 70 Sai Gomti River River 60 60 50 50 (mASL) 40 40 30 30 20 20 water wells included to indicate relative density in field Approximate preirrigation water table 0 10 km Current postmonsoon maximum water table Current premonsoon minimum water table A Water table too shallow ­ causing B Shallow but generally tolerable C Water table relatively deep and serious land loss through soil water table uctuations ­ still declining ­ groundwater waterlogging and salinization although any increase in canal production with suction lift (and damp problems in buildings) ows could change picture pumps becoming unsustainable aquifer, which is one of the largest aquifer systems can locally reach 40 percent of the total in major in the world. Figure 2.10 shows a typical setting in irrigation canal headwater zones. this aquifer system, representing the Jaunpur canal command in Uttar Pradesh. Groundwater use in this Groundwater use has increased to widely aquifer was first developed for agricultural irrigation represent as much as 70 percent of the overall as a coping strategy by farmers experiencing irrigation supply despite very limited coverage inadequate or unreliable service from the canal of rural electrification and dependence on diesel irrigation system or falling just outside the limits of engine pumps, and despite the fact that during canal command. The main kharif and rabi crops are the dramatic 2007­08 increases in the price of rice and wheat respectively, accounting for almost hydrocarbon fuels, groundwater users were 70 percent of all crops grown, although sugar cane paying Rs 2,000­3,000 per acre for pumping You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 31 groundwater, compared to only Rs 100 per acre salinization leading to crop losses and even land for canal water use. abandonment. As a result of the high dependence on groundwater The two problems are linked because the excessive for irrigation, over 50 percent of the land area of use and seepage losses in the upper reaches of Uttar Pradesh (comprising all areas towards and the canals, in addition to being responsible for beyond irrigation canal tail end zones) now has a waterlogging and salinization in these areas, are also falling water table. The impacts of this decline are the main reasons for poor surface water availability increasingly visible in terms of irrigation tubewell in the lower reaches. There is sound scientific dewatering and yield reductions, and the failure of argument and field experience to show that more handpumps and rural water supply wells. optimized conjunctive use (with improved surface water distribution and use, complemented by Concomitant with and sometimes in relatively more rational groundwater use) could increase close proximity (10­20 kilometers distant) to these the cropping intensity from generally below groundwater overexploitation scenarios, canal 150 percent to well over 200 percent without water leakage and flood irrigation in the canal compromising groundwater resource sustainability. headwater zones is resulting in around 20 percent This can be pursued by delineating and managing of the land area being threatened by shallow microzones based on hydrogeological and and rising water tables, with waterlogging and agroeconomic criteria. Figure 2.11 provides a Figure 2.11 Groundwater irrigation on the Gangetic plain of Uttar Pradesh: Moving from coping strategy to conjunctive use Command Area Canal Reach (or) Eco-hydro-agro Zone Head Mid Tail Non-command Area PRESENT IRRIGATION CANAL FLOW (relative volume c & reliability) 0m 0m 2m 4m 8m PRESENT GROUNDWATER 12m TABLE LEVEL (pre and postmonsoon) 20m Abundant with excessive Substantial canal Very intermittent and Total dependence offtakes and numerous water availability but unreliable canal flow­total on water wells­but Irrigation water service canal breaches­reluctance unreliable delivery dependence on water relatively good situation to use groundwater on means most farmers also wells with diesel engined irrigation practices and relative cost consideration. have to use water wells. suction lift pumps. water productivity. Water table too shallow Shallow but generally Water table still Water table relatively and in some cases rising­ tolerable water table declining questioning deep and still causing serious land loss fluctuations­although sustainability of declining often with Groundwater resource status through soil water- any increase in canal groundwater production consequent need logging and salinization flows could change with suction-lift pumps. to move to electric (and also damp problems picture. submersible pumps. in buildings). Stimulate groundwater careful monitoring Target water table Target water table use (to substitute for canal needed to detect any stabilization in part stabilzation by water) to improve soil tendency towards through improved canal reducing irrigated Groundwater management drainage and ameliorate rising water table when water availability and in area but growing needs salinization. canal water availability part through reducing higher-value crops improves. irrigated area but growing (pulses, mentha, higher value crops. mango trees). 32 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Land unfit for agriculture due to severe salinization, Hallor village (Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh). schematic representation of the existing canal water energization of tubewells in the upper reaches of and groundwater availability in the different zones, canal commands. There will also be a need for a long- along with the needed management measures. It is term campaign to educate farmers on the benefits important to note that in such settings the highest of managing conjunctive use of groundwater and current cropping intensity is found in those parts of canal water through microzone planning. the irrigation canal headwater zones where all illegal canal breaches and offtakes have been sealed, and The specific patterns of groundwater availability which are irrigated in a large measure by tubewells. and use and surface water supply options within This switch to promoting groundwater use in canal each command area will determine the nature headwater zones is critical for success in optimizing of appropriate management interventions. An conjunctive use, and would conceptually require innovative example of combining conjunctive both physical interventions (such as completing bank use management with artificial aquifer recharge sealing and desedimentation of irrigation canals) is provided by the Quibor valley in Venezuela and management measures (such as enforcing (GW-MATE CP-7), which possesses very favorable existing operational codes for the distribution of conditions for vegetable, fruit, and livestock canal water). However, in practice the real challenge production, but where only 15 percent of the lies in developing appropriate incentives to achieve potentially irrigable land is under production the desired water-use behavior at the individual because of the severe overexploitation of the farmer level. Such incentives may include measures underlying aquifer during the last 40 years for like extending rural electrification and targeted irrigation and urban water supply. The Yacambu- subsidies for promoting the construction and Quibor water transfer scheme has been designed You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 33 to meet the urban and irrigation water demands where water tables are deeper and coverage of that will mature slowly over a period predicted irrigation canals is not very extensive. Punjab was a to be between 5 and 30 years, and the excess showcase for the so-called Green Revolution, with transferred water during this time will be used for modern agricultural techniques allied to fertile soils reducing groundwater pumping and recharging and industrious farmers transforming the state into the aquifer, with full recuperation of the aquifer India's "grain basket". Punjab today accounts for reserves expected in 15 years. While the physical about 20 percent of the national wheat production setting of the Yacambu-Quibor project is quite and 11 percent of the national rice production on different from the canal-irrigated schemes in only 1.5 percent of the country's land area. Punjab Uttar Pradesh, it presents a good example of has experienced major increases in the area under how integrated use of surface and groundwater double-cropping of paddy rice and wheat, and resources can be effective in meeting increasing also in the yields of these crops per unit area, with urban and agricultural demands while at the same around 80­85 percent of the land being under time relieving the stress on depleted aquifers. irrigated cultivation and a cropping intensity of just under 1.9. Sustaining groundwater irrigation on the elevated A major part of Punjab's agricultural success has alluvial areas been based upon the exploitation of groundwater Central Punjab provides the most significant and resources, with the number of operating tubewells illustrative example for considering the issues and increasing from 0.5 million in 1960 to around 2.3 approaches for addressing excessive groundwater million currently, and it is estimated that about 70 exploitation in the older elevated alluvial areas percent of the irrigated cultivation is dependent on Siltation in Haidergarh Branch Head Canal, Uttar Pradesh. The silted canal now draws local fishermen. 34 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Figure 2.12 Cross-sections of the Indus alluvial plain in Punjab, illustrating the regional groundwater flow regime and water table decline A B C D NW Siwalik Hill Range 500 SE Chandigarh Patiala Sangrur Mansa 400 300 300 (mASL) 200 200 100 100 SALINE 0 0 10 km NW 600 A B C D 500 Siwalik Hill Range SE 400 Hoshiarpur Jalandhar Moga Muktsar (mASL) 300 Sutlej River (and flood plain) 300 Sutlej Rajasthan 200 Canal 200 100 SALINE 100 SALINE 0 0 10 km A - Highest rainfall area with major groundwater recharge from direct in ltration and riverbed B - Decreasing rainfall and canal seepage direct in ltration but important recharge from irrigation and seepage C - Much reduced recharge from all sources D - Very limited recharge except from any major regional transfer canals, but shallow (and in some cases, rising) water table with soil waterlogging and salinization widespread groundwater, as the system of surface water canals Over most (but not all) of Punjab the aquifer can only meet a minor proportion of the current system is thick (over 150 meters) and not total agricultural demand. One result of this massive susceptible to salinization, and thus this storage and uncontrolled exploitation of groundwater depletion (part of which is a normal consequence is that the water tables have been in continuous of any groundwater development) cannot yet be decline on a widespread basis (Figure 2.12), with regarded as absolutely critical, though it is resulting aquifer depletion rates currently in the range in mounting cumulative costs: 0.7­1.2 meters per year (approximately equivalent to a net 100­200 millimeters per year of excessive To the state government, which underwrites extraction). most of the cost of rural electrical energy You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 35 provision (apart from a small annual fixed groundwater exploitation in Punjab. At the same charge paid by farmers). Consumption is time it will also be important to monitor closely estimated to be currently increasing at around the aquifer response to this demand management 5 percent yearly, at a time when unit energy measure and to check that other components of the prices are generally rising and additional groundwater balance do not experience significant generating capacity is difficult to earmark. change. In this context it is important to appreciate that while over 70 percent of the irrigation water To farmers, who are being confronted with supply is derived from tubewells, as much as 35 the need to move from low-cost water wells percent of total groundwater recharge in the equipped with surface-mounted centrifugal state can be linked to leakage of the irrigation pumps (generally costing less than US$500) canal system. This leakage could be reduced if to deeper tubewells with electric submersible greater lengths of irrigation canal were lined, and pumps (whose total unit cost is likely to be may decrease naturally if climatic change reduces more than US$2,500), with inevitable adverse surface water availability. impacts on the smaller farmers. Urban groundwater use and policy concerns For these reasons there is an urgent concern to find ways of stabilizing the groundwater table (and Across India urban water utilities are under even of inducing a partial recovery), provided that enormous pressure to cope with escalating this does not severely constrain farming activity. water demand arising from both increasing While broader interventions in groundwater and urban population and from increasing per capita other sectoral policies will certainly be needed to water use, which has led to a major demand bring down groundwater use in the state within on groundwater resources where they are the sustainable limits, there seem to be possibilities available. But significantly different dynamics of for technical demand management interventions groundwater use, deriving ultimately from widely that can be immediately promoted to good effect. different groundwater resource availability, mean A number of potential water-saving measures are that recommended management approaches for possible for paddy rice, cultivation of which is the cities underlain by relatively low-potential hard- single biggest user of water in Punjab. A promising rock aquifers are very different from those where recent approach was the postponement of paddy the municipal water utilities are readily able to tap transplanting from May to mid-June, which seems major underlying alluvial aquifers. For this reason, capable of reducing consumptive water demand cities on hard-rock terrains are treated separately by at least 200 millimeters per crop without from cities on major alluvial plains in the rest of compromising rice yields (Box 2.2). this section. Punjab presents a special case where reducing Cities on hard-rock aquifers: The forgotten dimension of consumptive water use in the main water-intensive private groundwater use crop can actually translate into lower groundwater abstractions, because there are no significant India is urbanizing at a fast pace, and a large unrealized water demands in the agricultural number of the fastest growing cities (for example sector. Coupled with the fact that a number of Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Nashik, water-saving interventions also directly increase Pune, and Aurangabad) are located in hard-rock crop yields, investing in large-scale adoption of areas. The experience pertaining to cities on these interventions could be the preferred entry- weathered hard-rock aquifers summarized in this point for efforts to address the problem of excessive report is based mainly on detailed investigations 36 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Box 2.2 Possibilities for demand management interventions in Punjab In 2008, the government of Punjab issued orders to prohibit early transplanting of paddy, which had become an increasingly prevalent practice in the state. By pushing back the transplant time from as early as mid-May to mid-June, significant water savings were made across the state, as the peak irrigation need for paddy was realigned with the monsoonal rains. This measure was highly successful for several reasons: (a) there was limited public resistance as yields were not negatively impacted; (b) any lack of compliance would be highly visible; and (c) most importantly, once a critical mass of farmers decide to delay transplanting, those transplanting early face an increased threat of pest infestation. Initially issued as a government order for the 2008 planting, the measure is now under the consideration of the state legislature, with the objective of permanently disallowing early paddy transplanting. This experience indicates that given the technologically progressive nature of farming in the state, measures to increase agricultural productivity while indirectly inducing water savings could be effective in reducing groundwater use. The government of Punjab is considering additional measures, such as the leveling of fields using laser techniques; soil moisture-based irrigation timing; short-duration rice varieties; and the system of rice intensification. All of these water-saving techniques would also increase crop productivity. Although information is not yet available on the cumulative impacts of these interventions on water needs and crop yields, a preliminary tabulation (not accounting for return flows and nonbeneficial evapotranspiration) indicates significant water-saving potential. Water-saving potential of individual interventions (water savings are not cumulative) Proposed interventions for rice farming Reduction in water need (mm) Laser leveling 410 Delayed transplanting by one month 210 Timed irrigation with tensiometer 370 Short-duration rice varieties 300 System of rice intensification 370 Baseline water requirement for rice = 1,840 millimeters The potential for such interventions to actually bridge the demand­supply gap is specific to Punjab, and may not be replicable elsewhere. Punjab benefits from particularly progressive and technically aware farmers, who are quick to adopt promising new approaches. Moreover, the unusual fact that Punjab has reached saturation point in both area under cultivation and net irrigated areas means that there is no significant unrealized demand for water in the agricultural sector, thereby avoiding the risk that these gains would be offset by an increase in area under irrigation. in Aurangabad City commissioned under this proved to be very effective from the perspective initiative, and general indications from various of generating additional water supply for the other cities, where in all cases private water well users (Figure 2.13), despite the low yield potential construction and groundwater dependency has and very limited reserves of the weathered mushroomed, essentially as a coping strategy, Deccan Trap basalt aquifer system underlying given the inadequacy of municipal water supply. the city. It also demonstrates that the costs of and implicit capacity to pay for a more reliable In most wards of Aurangabad City, the municipal urban water supply are considerably above the water supply provides less than 1-in-24-hour level of the current highly subsidized domestic service at low mains pressure. In order to reduce urban water tariff. dependence on the purchase of much more expensive tanker water supply (costing more However, this major urban private investment than Rs 40 per cubic meter), urban dwellers and in self-supply from shallow groundwater is not commercial water users in particular have widely without its problems. In areas of very deficient turned to private in situ borewell construction municipal water supply and higher population as an alternative source of water supply. This has density it usually means heavy seasonal You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 37 Figure 2.13 Average annual water use by different user categories in Aurangabad City distinguishing adequate and depleted groundwater areas GROUNDWATER WATER SUPPLY RESOURCE STATUS SOURCE Municipal mains 1.5 Depleted Private tube well 1 2 Tanker purchase Municipal mains Nondepleted Private tube well 22 1 Tanker purchase Water used (Million litres per annum, MI/a) 1.0 10 5 0.5 2 1 0 Residential Institutional Commercial Users Users Users Source: Study on actual role and potential of groundwater for Aurangabad municipal water supply, 2008 (background analytical work for this initiative). depletion (almost emptying) of the low-storage infrastructure provision (both water supply and groundwater body, with widespread water well sanitation) and private self-supply will need to failure (especially in May­June). In addition, be developed on a case-by-case basis, including concerns are growing about bacteriological and direct measures to increase the availability and chemical pollution and nutrient overloading of reduce the quality risk associated with the use of aquifers. However, the most important concern in situ groundwater. is that in Aurangabad and in other cities on Cities on major alluvial aquifers: Towards more sustainable weathered hard-rock aquifers the existing use of groundwater for municipal supplies private access at moderate cost to in situ groundwater will inevitably be a key factor A large number of urban centers in the Indo- affecting the cost recovery potential for major Gangetic plains now obtain a major part or all of new urban water supply schemes based on their municipal water supply from groundwater. In expensive transport and treatment of water Delhi, for example, groundwater accounts for 11 from distant surface water sources. Figure 2.14 percent of the water production by the municipal shows the relative costs of existing supply and utility, but almost 50 percent of the total supply recovery requirements for additional supply to the final users if private abstraction is counted augmentation in Aurangabad. It is clear that in in (Maria 2006). Other examples of such cities are such cities a much more integrated vision of, Agra, Amritsar, Lucknow, Ludhiana, and Noida. and balanced policy between, utility Even when surface water resources are available, 38 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Figure 2.14 Indicative relative costs of main sources of Aurangabad City water supply 50 1.00 20 0.50 Increase needed to cover major new water supply scheme Water cost (US$ per cubic meter) Water cost (Rs per cubic meter) ? 10 0.20 Proposed tari 5 Current tari 0.10 Present recovery 0.05 2 AURANGABAD PRIVATE PURCHASE FROM MUNICIPAL SUPPLY WATER WELLS WATER TANKERS actual charge to cost of user cost to user cost to user production recurrent cost capital cost total cost amortized (recurrent + capital) COSTS DRIVING CURRENT USE BEHAVIOR Source: Study on actual role and potential of groundwater for Aurangabad municipal water supply, 2008 (background analytical work for this initiative). You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 39 reliance on groundwater is common because it demand, groundwater is being relied upon more is much more economical to develop than river than ever, at a time when the resource condition intakes, owing to lower capital cost for treatment is deteriorating because of historical lack of and flexibility of developing the resource in management. stages with the growth of demand. Owing to this access to a large buffer resource, such cities have These dynamics are illustrated with the example not generally suffered periods of widespread and of Lucknow (Figure 2.15 and Box 2.3), the capital extreme water service inadequacy while waiting city of Uttar Pradesh, which is situated on the for major investments in new surface water central Ganga alluvial plain, where localized water sources to be mobilized. Most utilities that have shortages are caused by unplanned growth rather the possibility of constructing high-yielding water than absolute resource scarcity. It is clear that the wells locally construct a few new water wells way forward to more robust urban water supply every year, connecting them to the overall system solutions, with sustainable groundwater use, on where feasible or using them to supply water to the major alluvial plains must involve specific new periurban developments. There does planned conjunctive use wherever exploit- not normally exist a high and competitive level able surface water resources are available; of private in situ self-supply, because municipal utility shortages have not been so severely development of more easily protected and experienced and because water well construction managed peripheral municipal well fields and operation costs are higher. However, with the (through appropriate arrangements with rapid expansion of urban areas and increasing rural communities); Figure 2.15 Historical growth of urban sprawl in Lucknow City (Uttar Pradesh) and current rate of water table decline 5 km Lucknow District boundary LUCKNOW DISTRICT 10m Lucknow City 20m Tans-Gomti Cis-Gomti NE SW Gomti River 2005 1970 & ood plain 0 0 20 m I anal m Go ti R aC ive Lucknow City r Shard depth (mbgl) 10 m 100 100 II slightly saline groundwater line of section (Ec >2000 µs/cm) 200 200 III 10 km Gomti Hill 10m approximate groundwater level vertical exaggeration x 100 BHABAR Range decline since 1970 GANGETIC PLAIN TERAI Quaternary urban area before 1975 (80 sq kms) 1970 approximate alluvial sands N groundwater 2005 table Lucknow area urban area in 1997 (180 sq kms) silty clay aquitard urban area in 2005 (245 sq kms) groundwater 0 50 100 km probably degraded vertical exaggeration x200 by urban contamination 40 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Box 2.3 Groundwater in municipal water supply of Lucknow Lucknow stretches across both banks of the Gomti River, a tributary of the Ganga, which is dependent mostly on natural groundwater discharge for its dry season flow. The climate is subtropical with an average rainfall of around 1,140 millimeters per year, and the city is underlain by a rich alluvial aquifer system with multiple productive layers. The population of Lucknow has grown from 1.0 million in 1981 to 2.3 million in 2001 (Figure 2.15), and is projected to reach 4.0 million by 2020. Before the 1970s the municipal water supply was based on an intake on the Gomti River, but from 1973 Lucknow started construction of tubewells in an effort to meet rapid urban growth and spiraling water demand. By 1985 the Lucknow Municipal Water Board was operating 70 tubewells, and by 2005 this number had risen to around 500 tubewells. The depth of tubewells had also increased from 120 meters to 200 meters (approximately). The current gross available municipal water supply is about 490 million liters per day, of which around 240 million liters is derived from the 500 tubewells and 250 million liters from surface water (with the Gomti River intake having been replaced by an offtake from the Sarda irrigation canal because of reduced base flows and quality deterioration in the river). However, the Municipal Water Board is faced with substantial physical leakage losses (estimated to be around 30%), which reduce the total deployable supply to about 345 million liters per day. The service provided is typically for 6 hours per day with individual use at about 100 liters per capita daily, but a few wards offer 24 hours per day supply of up to 250 liters per capita. Over the last two decades, there has been an increasing trend of private water well drilling and operation by those seeking and prepared to pay for a more secure 24 hours per day supply. Although there is no inventory of private groundwater use, it is estimated that around 1,100 tubewells are in operation by commercial, industrial, and institutional water users in addition to the large abstractions at the military cantonments and railway depots. With increasing groundwater draft, the water tables have been steadily declining from 10 meters below ground level in the 1950s to 20­30 meters below ground level at present. The water table decline is due to the highly localized concentration of tubewells, and not due to any overall resource deficiency in the aquifer system. Although there have been no systematic groundwater studies, one of the consequences of the water table decline is the reduction in municipal tubewell yields, from 20­25 liters per second in the 1970s to 10­20 liters per second currently. It is also no longer feasible to use surface-mounted centrifugal pumps for private tubewell pumping. Furthermore, the declining water table has changed the condition of the Gomti River from effluent (gaining flow from natural groundwater discharge) to influent (losing flow to groundwater infiltration), causing concerns about groundwater pollution from the polluted river water and insufficient river flow for dilution of sewage discharges. Lucknow is planning to further augment Sarda canal flows from the Sarda River 150 kilometers away in an attempt to guarantee the availability of 500 million liters per day in all seasons. However, such a scheme is vulnerable to other demands that are also rising in the basin, and potential conflicts with the farming community across whose land the canal runs. Moreover, the 2025 demand prediction requires a gross available supply of 810 million liters per day (before leakage losses are deducted), which would imply maintaining or even expanding local groundwater production. It is noteworthy that, because of the availability of local groundwater resources, the municipal water supply situation in Lucknow is considerably better than in most cities of peninsular India, and the current problems have more to do with distribution system constraints caused by unplanned growth than with an absolute resource shortage. Groundwater is a significant element of the overall water supply situation of Lucknow, from the perspectives of resource availability, financial sustainability, and environmental benefits, yet it is mostly taken for granted, and not taken fully into consideration in technical and financial water supply planning. integration of appropriate planning and numerous areas within a radius of 25 kilometers protection of all municipal groundwater that are experiencing soil waterlogging (as a sources into broader urban planning. result of a high or rising water table) and constructing well fields in such areas with delivery In the specific case of Lucknow, a more integrated of water to the urban distribution system either and harmonized conjunctive use of surface by pipeline or by augmentation of flows in water and groundwater sources should include any conveniently located canals. Both options spreading municipal groundwater extraction to would have the secondary benefit of improving You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 41 land drainage and crop productivity in the pumping costs. As the use of groundwater will corresponding rural areas. become more critical in the coming decades to provide adequate service levels for the rapidly With the worldwide increase in the pace of growing urban population and as a strategic urbanization, growing dependence of large reserve in times of drought, the urban water urban centers on groundwater is now common supply authority, which is currently relying solely in most continents. A recent field survey in on surface water, is facing the imperative of Metropolitan Fortaleza in Brazil, which is one of introducing an element of groundwater planning Latin America's fastest-growing cities, disclosed and management. an unexpectedly large increase in the number of water wells (from 1,700 in 1980 to about 10,000 For large urban groundwater settings such as currently), with significant capital sunk in private Delhi and Lucknow, a success story in groundwater water supply and most of the large abstractors management is provided by Greater Bangkok being unregulated (GW-MATE CP-14). The primary (Box 2.4), illustrating how a severely deteriorating driver of this private and informal groundwater groundwater overexploitation situation was use is the unreliability of municipal service stabilized by an appropriately empowered and provision and periods of extended drought. well-organized regulatory agency. The accelerated and unregulated increase in groundwater abstractions has raised concerns Conclusion: Tailoring groundwater about seawater intrusion and consequent management to each specific irreversible damage to the aquifer systems, along typology with pollution resulting from poor coverage of the sewerage network. Similar issues regarding the This chapter has presented a description of the sustainability of groundwater use exist in various main typologies of groundwater overexploitation other cities in Brazil, which has witnessed an in India, the peculiar dynamics of groundwater increase in its urban population from 37 percent use in each setting, and the appropriate of the total in 1950 to 81 percent in 2000, and management measures. The recommendations which therefore provides an interesting parallel on management measures have emerged from a to India's fast urbanization rates. continuous and close dialogue with the various stakeholders, using the available information Another example of the current and future on the hydrogeological and socioeconomic significance of urban groundwater use is characteristics for each specific environment. The illustrated by Greater Nairobi, which primarily measures are summarized in Table 2.6, and begin relies on surface water supplies from the Tana to answer the question of what to do for each River basin, but where poor reliability due to typology of overexploited aquifers presented drought and the inefficient distribution network in Table 2.3. The following chapter assesses the has resulted in increasing groundwater use by strengths and weakness of the institutional unregulated private operators (GW-MATE CP- framework within which the proposed measures 13). Groundwater beneath the city is being must be implemented, both at the central and pumped from the thick aquifer underlying the state government levels. A detailed discussion Athi River floodplain by industrial enterprises, of the who and how of implementing the commercial users, and domestic wells, leading management measures is the substance of the to a gradually falling water table and increased final chapter. 42 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Box 2.4 Stabilizing groundwater use in Greater Bangkok Greater Bangkok witnessed widespread exploitation of groundwater starting in the 1950s, and by 1980 the abstractions had reached a point where there was evidence of significant land subsidence damaging urban infrastructure and concerns regarding aquifer sea intrusion (GW-MATE CP-20). The initial approach taken by the Metropolitan Waterworks Authority was to eliminate the utility's abstraction in favor of surface water sources, but the increased domestic, commercial, and industrial tariffs for public water supply triggered a massive increase in the drilling of private wells, whose total abstraction reached over 2,000 million liters per day in the late 1990s. Measures such as banning water well drilling in critical areas and licensing and charging for metered or estimated groundwater abstractions were introduced, but took some years to be implemented. During 1995­2005 even stronger measures were introduced and implemented (including raising groundwater use charges and more aggressive application of sanctions on well drilling, supported by public awareness campaigns) to constrain groundwater abstraction within environmentally tolerable limits. Total abstraction was reduced from 2,700 million liters per day in 2000 to 1,500 million liters per day in 2005, and land subsidence was also significantly reduced. Political protest by users in some districts was addressed by allowing well users to continue using their wells conjunctively for the period up to their next license renewal (up to 10 years) and to retain their wells as a backup supply for 15 years, provided they were adequately metered and open to inspection. Table 2.6 Preferred management approaches under different aquifer and user typologies Resource Relevance of management approaches to use address overexploitation Land General & specific hydrogeological Policy Demand Conjunctive use environment intervention management Recharge use Widespread weathered Subsistence hard-rock (basalt or and granite) aquifers with commercial Low High Medium Low Hard-rock shallow, low-storage agricultural terrains in patchy groundwater exploitation, peninsular bodies drinking India Occasional but important water groundwater bodies in supply, some High Low Medium Medium coastal or graben fill industries sedimentary aquifers Rural Alluvial aquifers, in plains largely within Major major irrigation canal Mainly Medium High Low High alluvial commands with naturally subsistence formations shallow water table and of rural Indo- Alluvial aquifers in the commercial Gangetic older elevated alluvial agricultural plains plains, with more limited exploitations High High Low Low irrigation canals and deeper water table Weathered hard-rock Individual aquifers with shallow, urban Low Medium High Medium low-storage patchy households, Urban Urban groundwater bodies water environment utilities, Major alluvial aquifers in industries, Medium Low Low High alluvial plains tourism You Cannot Manage What You Don't Know: Understanding Realities Under and Above the Ground 43 A Semblance of Sufficiency: Institutional Framework of Groundwater Management in India Introduction Administrative, legal, political, and economic factors are all powerful determinants positively Groundwater overexploitation is a result of or negatively influencing the decisions of farmers millions of individual decisions made at the and households, at the individual and collective local level, each arguably rational in its specific levels, regarding the use of groundwater. This local context. Yet, patterns of groundwater complexity is illustrated by the well-known use and overuse are nevertheless influenced water resources management "comb" schematic significantly by a range of macrolevel variables. (Figure 3.1), which shows the surface and Figure 3.1 Contextual environment of water resources and water services ECOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT SOCIETAL ENVIRONMENT POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SYSTEM INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK SURFACE AND GROUNDWATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT Infrastructure for coping with floods Water Irrigation Energy Environmen- Other and droughts supply and tal uses (multipurpose and drainage services including storage, dug wells sanitation industry and bore wells, and watershed navigation improvement) Organiza- Organiza- Organiza- Organiza- Organiza- Protection (water tional tional tional tional tional and source quality) arrange- arrange- arrange- arrange- arrange- Organizational ments ments ments ments ments arrangements WATER SERVICES DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT A Semblance of Sufficiency: Institutional Framework of Groundwater Management in India 45 groundwater resources embedded in a set of wells or withdrawal volumes); water resource relevant environments. fees; compensation for reducing groundwater withdrawals; and formal or informal sale and The following section introduces the broad purchase of groundwater categories of instruments used across the world for groundwater management. The institutional Groundwater property regimes, aimed environment governing groundwater use in India at creating private and preferably tradable is then examined in detail, with specific focus on ownership or usufructory rights, so that its legislative, organizational, and sector policy incentives for improving productivity and dimensions. The appropriateness and applicability conservation can be created in a system that of various management instruments for addressing is otherwise open access and prone to the groundwater overexploitation in different settings tragedy of the commons of India is then assessed in the macro context of Community management, aimed at this institutional environment. creating self-governing groundwater user organizations that can be given the Types of groundwater management responsibility of sustainable management instruments of aquifers, through collective monitoring of aquifers and the behavior of groundwater Groundwater use in India is unique both in users scale and characteristics of development, and will therefore require management approaches Scholars and policy makers in India have that not only address the peculiar needs of reviewed the international experience with each groundwater setting (as described in the these management interventions, to understand preceding chapter) but are also adapted to which measures have worked elsewhere and why the broader contexts of governance and the (Shah 2009; Planning Commission 2007). Prior to political economy in India. A number of countries assessing their appropriateness and applicability for have faced the challenge of groundwater addressing groundwater overexploitation in India, overexploitation in previous decades, and there the following sections present the institutional now exists a significant body of knowledge on context of groundwater use in the country. lessons emerging from this global experience. The following broad categories of groundwater Groundwater use in India: Legislative management interventions can be identified environment from this cumulative experience (Shah 2009): Regulatory measures, enforced through Groundwater in the Indian legal system falls within state administrative mechanisms, mainly a complex, multilayered framework, consisting of a aimed at controlling groundwater abstraction range of constitutional and statutory provisions at through restrictions on digging new wells, the central and state levels. well depths, and volumes pumped (pumping The right to groundwater has traditionally been quotas); norms for well siting; and well field seen as following the right to land, based on the protection zoning Indian Easements Act of 1882, which gives every Economic instruments, aimed at influencing owner of land "the right ... to collect and dispose the behavior of resource users by introducing within his own limits of all water under the land an economic value to the resource, through which does not pass in a defined channel". This water pricing (including taxes and levies on provision of the Act effectively establishes the right 46 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India of each landowner to appropriate all groundwater the bill. In the words of the Planning Commission's not flowing in "defined channels" under the land. Expert Group on Groundwater Management This long-established "real property" groundwater and Ownership, "Despite repeated circulation right is balanced by the emerging public interest of the Model Groundwater Bill by the Central dimension of groundwater use. In 1996 the Supreme Government, states have generally exhibited Court, ruling under the Environment (Protection) lethargy in legislating on groundwater" (Planning Act (1986), instructed the government of India to Commission 2007). Arguably the bill could be establish the Central Ground Water Authority to further modified to improve the chances of regulate and control groundwater development enactment of effective groundwater management with a view to preserving and protecting this legislation by the states. A comparison with global resource. The decisions made in a more recent practice in groundwater legislation indicates that case involving the Coca-Cola Company also affirm some of the salient improvements to the Model the government's right and obligation to protect Groundwater Bill could include more emphasis on groundwater under the right to life guaranteed by public participation and community management the Constitution of India. and less dependence on direct top-down governmental control, differentiating between The Constitution lists "water supplies" (which is small and large users and between commercial understood to include groundwater) under the and noncommercial uses of groundwater, and State List, thereby giving the states jurisdiction to addressing equity issues around groundwater use, regulate and control groundwater. However, the including consideration of groundwater users who central government also has a concurrent power do not have formal land titles. to make laws with respect to any matter for any part of the territory of India. One of the functions Legal remedies that have been proposed for of the Union Ministry of Water Resources is "overall improving groundwater management in India planning for the development of groundwater also include changes to the Easements Act, which resources, establishment of utilizable resources would involve establishing private property rights and formulation of policies of exploitation, in water by delinking water use rights from land overseeing of and support to state level activities rights so that incentives can be created to promote in groundwater development". a more efficient and rational utilization of scarce groundwater resources. Accordingly, the central government has sought to support states in a pragmatic way through The Planning Commission's Expert Group on the issuance of the Model Groundwater Bill. The Groundwater Management and Ownership rationale for the bill is to provide a template for has argued that the legislative framework is consideration by state governments, which can reasonably robust, in that in principle it enables modify and adopt it according to their needs. the groundwater management practices that The Model Groundwater Bill was first developed are likely to be pragmatic and effective in India in 1970 and has subsequently been revised and (Box 3.1). Recent Supreme Court and State High circulated many times. Amongst other things Courts rulings support the principle that private the bill recommends the constitution and extraction rights can, and should, be curbed by empowerment of some form of "state groundwater the state if the use of groundwater is considered management agency", and registration and excessive. The Expert Group has therefore control of at least the larger groundwater users. It concluded that "no change in basic legal regime is important to note that only a handful of states relating to groundwater seems necessary" have enacted groundwater legislation based on (Planning Commission 2007). An analysis of the A Semblance of Sufficiency: Institutional Framework of Groundwater Management in India 47 Box 3.1 Adequacy of existing legal framework for effective groundwater management in India The Planning Commission's Expert Group on Groundwater Management and Ownership (Planning Commission 2007) has framed the legal environment as adequate for groundwater management: It acknowledges that there is sufficient basis for government action, in that "The recent court rulings have held that the Union State has got a duty to protect groundwater against excessive exploitation and the inaction in this regard will be tantamount to infringement of the right to life of the people guaranteed under the Constitution of India." The "Central Government's role emanates from the provisions of the Environment Act, because as overexploitation of groundwater is gaining momentum, environment is increasingly under threat." It realizes the implementation constraints associated with regulatory measures: `Given the enforcement problems relating to prohibitive measures, greater reliance needs to be placed on community management of the resource, supported by adequate technical inputs, complementary institutional changes and appropriate incentives (such as a subsidy regime for micro-irrigation), rather than on `controls by state"'. It advocates selective regulation, establishing that "Should groundwater level fall below the replenishable level in a specific groundwater block, the Central Government should intervene with command and control measures, under the provisions of the Environment Act, by declaring the affected area as `environmentally threatened'". administrative and sector policy environments, responsibility can be devolved from state to village presented in the following sections, shows that level. As discussed before, the central government the Expert Group's conclusion is correct, because also has jurisdiction over groundwater, but it is the problem of groundwater overexploitation the state governments that have the primary does not arise from inadequate legislation and jurisdiction and responsibility for controlling and therefore cannot be solved through legislative regulating groundwater use. remedies. Through the National Environment Policy and National Water Policy, the central government Groundwater use in India: Administrative is expected to play a role in the direction of and organizational environment groundwater development and management India is a federal republic of 28 states and 7 union in the country. As mentioned earlier, the Central territories. All states and two of the union territories Ground Water Authority is charged with the (including the National Capital Territory of Delhi) regulation and development of groundwater as a have elected governments. Each state or union prime natural resource of national importance. The territory is further divided into districts, of which activities of the Authority include notification of there are a total of 610 in India, for basic governance areas for regulation of groundwater development and administration. The districts in turn are further in severely overexploited aquifers, regulation of divided into blocks and villages. well drilling and groundwater abstraction in such areas, and building awareness on groundwater Under the Indian Constitution, state governments issues in the country. The Central Ground Water have the primary responsibility for water supply and Authority includes the representative of and is irrigation. In addition, state legislatures have been headed by the chair of the Central Ground Water given a constitutional mandate to decentralize Board, which is a dedicated groundwater research power, where necessary, to the locally elected and monitoring agency under the Ministry of Water panchayati raj institutions, with drinking water and Resources engaged in hydrogeological surveys minor irrigation included in the subjects over which and groundwater monitoring nationwide. 48 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India In addition to the Central Ground Water Authority to various sectors, this large number of agencies and Central Ground Water Board, the various is neither unexpected nor unusual in the global agencies at different levels in the government that context. However, a large number of agency are important actors in groundwater development players impacting a vital resource without effective and use are shown in Table 3.1. coordination or regulatory oversight translates into a significant governance challenge for groundwater It is clear that the oversight of groundwater issues management in India. The roles and responsibilities is institutionally fragmented both within and between state and central groundwater institutions across different levels of government. Table 3.1 are not sufficiently defined. The Central Ground shows more than 15 government agencies with Water Authority's groundwater rules for regulation, specific mandates associated with groundwater development, and management are still pending resources and related water services. Given the approval and many states have reservations ubiquitous use of groundwater and its pertinence regarding the mandate of the Central Ground Table 3.1 Main government agencies relevant to groundwater resources services Ground Water water Level Unit Main functions Established in 1997, following Supreme Court orders, mainly to regulate, central Ground Water control, manage, and develop groundwater resources in the whole country O authority and support states Established in 1950 for dedicated groundwater research and monitoring, to central Ground Water support overall planning for development of groundwater resources in the O Board country, and to provide support to states central pollution Norm setting on industries' water use and wastewater discharge O O control Board central Groundwater Development & Management Ministry of commerce Policy decisions and water use norm setting on water related to industry O O and Industries Ministry of Planning, promotion, coordination, and overseeing implementation of environment and environmental and forestry programs and implementing the Environment O Forests (Protection) Act 1986 Ministry of rural Rural development, land resources, and drinking water supply O O Development Implementing the nationwide Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Ministry of urban Mission, with significant interventions in water supply, sewerage and O O Development sanitation; Water supply and sewerage for the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territories Established in 1990 under Ministry of Water Resources, apex organization national Water Board with responsibility for progress achieved in implementation of National O O Water Policy and other issues, reports to National Water Resources Council Established in 1983 with prime minister as chair, minister of water resources national Water as vice-chair, and concerned Union ministers/ministers of State, chief O O resources council ministers of all states, and lieutenant governors of union territories with secretary of Ministry of Water Resources as member secretary Setting policy guidelines and programs for development and regulation Ministry of Water of the country's water resources, but functions specific to groundwater O resources resources through Central Ground Water Board Oil and natural Gas Member of Central Ground Water Authority and supplements deep well O commission logging information A Semblance of Sufficiency: Institutional Framework of Groundwater Management in India 49 resources services Ground Water water Level Unit Main functions Rural Electrification Development financing institution that finances and fully coordinates and central Financing O Corporation oversees Special Project Agriculture Institutions National Bank for Responsible for refinancing and standardizing substantial part of private Agriculture and Rural O O sector groundwater Development State electricity boards Single window to individual farmers for obtaining pump set energization O state State government Principally responsible for groundwater use and control, as water is primarily O O departments a state subject Rural water supply, but to be devolved more water services and water local Panchayats O O resource management functions Water Authority for control and regulation, given state is the responsibility of the Groundwater that groundwater is primarily a state subject. Directorate, which is staffed by only five Although the Central Ground Water Authority and hydrogeologists. Even in states such as Central Ground Water Board have the potential to Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, which become champions of sustainable groundwater boast the best groundwater departments management in India, the continued lack of clarity in the country, staffing strength and profiles over their status and chronic understaffing means are grossly inadequate compared to what is central government institutions cannot properly needed. The situation is further worsened fulfill their functions and effectively support state by the decades-long hiring freezes resulting agencies. in a large fraction of vacant positions and a steady loss of institutional wisdom with the The institutional and administrative environment retirement of experienced personnel. also varies considerably between states. A comparative review of organizational structures at Groundwater organizations are generally state level reveals a very diverse picture. Some states, located at a relatively low level in the state for example Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, have hierarchy, often in the departments whose dedicated groundwater authorities, whilst others, interest is focused on one of the main such as Haryana, only have small groundwater cells water uses, for example irrigation or water as part of their irrigation departments. In almost all supply. Even where they are considered cases, groundwater agencies are not adequately an independent department, they report equipped for taking up the role of groundwater either to the irrigation or water supply management. The major issues pertain to the minister, and are a relatively minor part of following: the minister's charge. Groundwater agencies are almost The structure, functioning, and staffing of nonexistent in many states. In Punjab, a groundwater agencies conform primarily leading agricultural state where 80 percent to the long-outdated mandate of surveying of groundwater blocks are threatened by and developing the groundwater resource, overexploitation, groundwater monitoring and are not oriented to paying any attention and management for the 20 districts of the to the users and the socioeconomic 50 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India dimensions of groundwater use. Resource Groundwater use in India: Sector policy management functions currently receive environment very scant human and financial resources compared to surveying, monitoring, and In most environments, the modalities of development of groundwater. groundwater use are strongly contextual. In agriculture, for example, groundwater use These shortcomings of the state agencies represent depends significantly on energy options and costs a major implementability constraint for any kind of of pumping, availability of surface irrigation, and groundwater management in India. As discussed in cropping choices. Similarly, the unreliability of Chapter 5, removing this constraint also constitutes urban domestic and industrial water supplies is a pragmatic and politically feasible first step the primary driver of self-provision through private towards addressing the challenge of groundwater wells in urban areas. Table 3.2 presents an overview management in the country. of these sectoral linkages. Table 3.2 Main groundwater-related policies and scope for coordination and synergy Policy area Description Current situation & action needed Crop policy Major impact on cropping patterns due to Minimum support prices for some water- Food crops purchases and price guarantees intensive crops such as paddy are a key procurement constraint for crop diversification in many states Subsidies on Inputs Subsidized power at odds with sustainable Free electricity for irrigation pumping in place groundwater management but major burden on in several states; high-level dialogue towards Electricity state exchequers is the key problem effective application of realistic tested measures urgently needed Better if linked to local supply and service network Programs popular when linked to improvements Micro irrigation and demand management measures in crop production and ease of use Moisture Mulching, composting, and improved field Some projects and pilots support extension management irrigation can reduce water consumption services covering soil moisture management Recharge programs Potential to increase recharge, but challenge is States and central government implementing Rainwater harvesting maintenance, farmers' investment, and link to large-scale programs but unlinked to water and recharge demand management demand measures Sand and gravel loads of rivers key in storing Extraction in India is largely uncontrolled and Sand and gravel floodwater and in recharge. Sand dams can also many local river sections are being depleted mining harvest sand Land use planning Protection of Designated sensitive areas can help control Not yet common in India, even for urban areas recharge areas polluting activities Roads can retain, channel, and recharge water, Ambitious yet only partly fulfilled plans to Road planning but inadequate cross-drainage can cause improve the national road network in India. waterlogging Linkage opportunities should be explored Building codes can include rooftop water In place in several major cities. Care is required to Housing collection and recharge of aquifers ensure harvested rooftop water can infiltrate Hazardous waste landfills need careful siting and Proper management strategies and regulation Solid waste disposal sealing to prevent contamination of groundwater implementation urgently needed to cope with massive widespread problem in India A Semblance of Sufficiency: Institutional Framework of Groundwater Management in India 51 Policy area Description Current situation & action needed Oil and petrol leaks can be major contaminant of Hardly any effective regulation Petrol pumps groundwater Economic planning Can place a high groundwater demand, especially With over 382 million per year, domestic tourism Tourism in fragile coastal areas in India is on the increase. Planning of water supply and waste disposal required Should be located in areas with ample water Several located in fragile groundwater- Sugar mills supply away from hard-rock aquifers dependent areas, which need to be avoided Encouraging small and medium industries to In several states there is a move to central relocate to industrial estates with local wastewater wastewater processing units on industrial Industrial estates treatment facilities to avoid dispersed pollution estates. This could be useful but requires careful assessment to avoid concentrating pollution High-water-consuming plants should be sited in The Coca-Cola bottling factory case in Kerala areas with adequate water supplies highlighted the need to make use of the provisions in the relevant state acts (Pollution Industrial planning Control Act, Environment (Protection) Act, Groundwater Act) and couple this with regulatory provision by the local government Several areas in India seem to have promising Groundwater protection around mining areas deposits but careful protection is required in India is still in its infancy and more work is Mining from pollution from mine tailings, and there is required, especially around selected hotspots considerable scope for waste-to-resource programs There is an extensive and growing body of literature cheap electricity provide no incentive for judicious on the evolution of sectoral policies, which have use of water and power by farmers, and there is had serious implications for groundwater use broad consensus that they have contributed to in India (Shah 2007; Jha, Srinivasan, and Landes accelerating groundwater use and overexploitation 2007; Molle and Berkoff 2007). Of all these sectoral in the country since the 1980s (Narayana and linkages, the one between groundwater use Scott 2004), resulting in an almost steady increase and policies pertaining to provision of power to of 5.5 percent per year in the number of critical farmers is so prominent in India that it is referred groundwater blocks across the country. In to simply as the "energy-groundwater nexus". addition to the perverse incentives it creates for Groundwater irrigation is heavily dependent on groundwater pumping, free or cheap power is also access to electricity, and is estimated to account a severe threat to the bottom line finances of state for anywhere from 15­20 percent (Shah 2007) to electricity boards, which are saddled with losses 31 percent (Kumar 2005) of the total electricity incurred from massive nonrevenue exposure to consumed in India. Most of the states are providing the agricultural sector. electricity to farmers at a heavily subsidized flat tariff, whereby farmers are charged a fixed rate In the current environment, where in practice no (based on the pump horsepower) independent of direct legal or administrative control exists on the actual amount of electricity consumed. Some groundwater use, the economic signals contained states are also providing free electricity to farmers, in the agriculture, power, and other sectoral and the promise of free power was a common policies have become the prime determinants and popular campaign promise in the last round of groundwater use, even though these policies of elections in many states. Flat rate tariffs and were designed without any consideration of their 52 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India possible impacts on groundwater use. It is clear Introducing high-level policy reform ­ that the governments will need to rectify these to what end? policy distortions if a sustainable long term solution has to be found for addressing groundwater A discussion of the need for policy reform overexploitation. first requires an identification of instruments of groundwater management that could be However, as described in the following chapters, considered appropriate for specific settings in there are serious political economy obstacles India, and that would need to be introduced or to reforming such sectoral policies in the strengthened through a legislative initiative. The immediate term. Therefore, an interim "Plan four main categories of groundwater management B" is needed whereby the some of the desired instruments presented earlier are now assessed for objectives of policy reform maybe achievable their potential applicability and effectiveness in through innovative technical alternatives that physical and institutional settings of groundwater sidestep the politically difficult decision-making overexploitation in India. process. Gujarat's experiment with separation of electricity feeders for agricultural power Regulatory measures supply (Box 3.2) has been successful in giving the state effective control over electricity and Global experience suggests that regulation groundwater consumption in agriculture, and of groundwater abstraction is a challenging can provide at least an interim solution to other undertaking. Effective regulation needs not only states for resolving the hitherto irresolvable sound legislation and a viable regulatory institution, energy­groundwater nexus. but also the administrative capacity to readily Box 3.2 The Jyotirgram scheme in Gujarat In 2003 Gujarat initiated a statewide scheme for separating the electricity feeders for agricultural power supply from those for nonagricultural use supplies in the rural areas (Shah and Verma 2008). The key objective of the scheme, which was implemented at a cost of US$260 million, is to provide an agreed amount (8 hours) of high-quality and high-reliability power to farmers, and to provide 24-hour supply to nonfarm uses. The farmers agree to accept de facto rationing because reliable power supply on an announced schedule is preferable even for a limited number of hours during most of the year, as long as demand during the peak irrigation time is also met. The implementation of this scheme has resulted in significant improvements in village quality of life and in the nonfarm village economy through separation of the rural domestic, industrial, and institutional power supply from the impacts of decisions regarding agricultural power supply; more efficient use of power and groundwater in agriculture, due to the high reliability of power available on a preannounced schedule; 37 percent reduction in aggregate use of power in groundwater irrigation between 2001 and 2006, and a concomitant reduction in groundwater draft. This measure of separating farm power supply from other uses in rural areas has provided the state with an effective switch with which power and groundwater use in agriculture can be regulated at various levels. The one adverse effect of this intervention has been the loss of water availability to the marginal farmers who relied on informal water markets, which have shrunk significantly due to power rationing. This downside can be addressed and the gains of the intervention further enhanced if the farm power supply can be provided on a demand-adjusted schedule based on identification of farmers' requirements. A Semblance of Sufficiency: Institutional Framework of Groundwater Management in India 53 Figure 3.2 Increase in water well drillings with increasing regulation in Guanajuato state, Mexico 16,000 6.0 d) Well drilling prohibition orders icte ed (Pr 5.0 12,00 Number of deep water wells State population (millions) 4.0 8,000 3.0 lls we 2.0 ter Wa 4,000 Population (actual) 1.0 0 0 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020 monitor and enforce rules. This becomes extremely the Central Ground Water Authority has notified 43 difficult when there are large numbers of very small overexploited blocks for regulating groundwater users. Figure 3.2 illustrates how the number of exploitation and 65 blocks for registration of water wells has grown with increasing regulation abstraction wells. in Guanajuato state, Mexico, as people drill wells in anticipation of regularization deadlines after which In these notified blocks, the Central Ground new wells would be banned in overexploited Water Authority has been issuing directives aquifers. Both in terms of population and water for enforcement of various measures such as well density, Guanajuato is much smaller than a registration of groundwater abstraction structures, typical Indian state, but is emblematic of problems registration of drilling agencies, and regulation of faced by a regulatory approach for managing groundwater development by new users (including groundwater overexploitation. industrial users in overexploited and critical blocks). Directives issued to district administrative heads in India faces even greater monitoring and notified areas permit sealing of the illegal tubewells, enforcement challenges, with the number of seizure of drilling equipment, and disconnection of groundwater structures last counted at 19 million electricity supply to the energized illegal wells. and now estimated to be between 23 million and 25 million. The administrative capacity of regulatory Notwithstanding the expansive scope of these institutions at both the central and state levels is regulations, neither the Central Ground Water weak. As described earlier, the Central Ground Authority nor the state groundwater agencies that Water Authority is authorized to notify critical are supposed to oversee the enforcement of these groundwater areas where stringent regulations on regulations have the resources and personnel groundwater abstraction can be imposed. Currently required for the task. Furthermore, the offices of 1,615 groundwater blocks (of a total of 5,723 the district commissioner or district magistrate, groundwater blocks in the country) are classified which have been authorized to take necessary as semi-critical, critical, or overexploited. Of these, action in cases of violation of Central Ground Water 54 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Authority directives in the notified areas, are the for meeting urban water needs (Briscoe 1999), hub of all administrative activity and are unlikely to and numerous European cities paying periurban find the resources to pursue enforcement violations. farmers to adopt agricultural practices that protect It is a telling example of the lack of enforcement the water quality of aquifers being tapped for urban resources that drilling of wells continues unabated use (Shah et al. 2000). and groundwater tables are falling by as much as 1.5­2 meters annually in the two notified districts The debate on introduction of pricing mechanisms of south and southwest Delhi (Times of India 2008), for water has often raised equity concerns, in the immediate neighborhood of the Central focusing on questions about the ability of the Ground Water Authority's office. poor to pay market prices for a basic need such as water. Hybrid approaches that combine a well- The enforceability of the legislation has been a defined, free and universal basic right allocation major problem even in those states where it is of water with economic pricing above a threshold narrowly focused on protecting drinking water quantity have been successfully implemented sources. It can be safely concluded that it is (for example in South Africa), and could therefore practically impossible for the states to marshal the conceptually address such equity concerns (Iyer supervisory resources needed for enforcement of 2007). However, the main difficulty with pricing command and control measures over millions of mechanisms in settings such as those of rural wells. Therefore, enacting and enforcing stringent agriculture in India is that of implementation, groundwater regulations can be a viable strategy because the state agencies simply do not have the only for protecting severely threatened resources in administrative resources required for metering and a relatively smaller number of active management monitoring groundwater use and collecting user areas, and this is already allowed by the existing fees. This concern of implementability is not always legal framework. addressed adequately. Maharashtra, for example, is currently considering a groundwater management Economic instruments model that involves regulation of groundwater use from more than 1.5 million irrigation wells Introduction of pricing provides a substitute in the state, and includes provision of a levy on to coercive instruments for achieving resource groundwater use and a ban on deep tubewells. conservation and sustainable management of The practicality of such measures appears doubtful groundwater, because volumetric charges or when it is considered that merely the registration resource use fees create incentives for users to of users has proved to be a difficult challenge in move towards efficient allocation of the resource. Mexico and Spain, with a number of wells that is Groundwater pricing has been attempted and is a more than an order of magnitude lower than that part of groundwater governance regimes in many in India. In order to get an idea of the transaction countries, for example China, Israel, Jordan, Mexico, costs of implementing such measures in India and the United States. A tax or a resource use fee is (with close to 20 million wells today), it is helpful to the more traditional form of pricing, but collection note that it was owing primarily to the difficulties and enforcement of such fees has been found to be of metering close to 2 million wells that the state difficult where there are large numbers of resource electricity boards were forced to switch to flat tariffs users or poor governance environments (Shah 2009). in the 1970s. Pricing has been more successful when used to create incentives for moving water to higher-value While the challenges of implementation make dim uses. Examples include the municipal water utility the prospects of setting up formal groundwater in Chennai paying farmers to sell borewell supplies pricing in India, informal versions of groundwater A Semblance of Sufficiency: Institutional Framework of Groundwater Management in India 55 markets are thriving in rural India (Saleth 1994) and While the conceptual effectiveness of a tradable cover more than a quarter of the country's irrigated groundwater property rights regime is obvious, area (Mukherji 2004). Urban areas are also found to the real constraint in making it effective lies in be served significantly by informal supply systems the domain of implementation. The foundation of based mainly on groundwater (Londhe et al. 2004). groundwater rights rests on the premise that the Therefore, pricing mechanisms can theoretically be rights can be enforced, with transaction costs of a viable instrument of groundwater management enforcement mounting as the number of rights in India, if implemented through community- holders increases. The fundamental difficulty with based approaches. property rights systems is therefore the same as that with regulation and pricing ­ the very high Tradable groundwater rights transaction costs of implementation. Tradable property rights, if properly The examples cited in the previous section implemented, have the potential to alter the (the city of Chennai buying water from farmers nature of the groundwater abstraction game. for meeting urban water supply needs, and As shown in a general context (Coase 1960), the European cities paying the periurban farmers for existence of well-defined rights is a required protecting the water quality of aquifers) indicate condition for resource users to reach socially that introducing an element of pricing can acceptable and optimal outcomes through a improve allocation efficiency of groundwater. process of negotiation and bargaining. However, it is critical to establish the groundwater Gram Sabha (village community) meeting with public officials, Pandherwadi village (Satara, Maharashtra) 56 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India rights prior to the setting up of pricing and implementing management measures. Hence, transaction platforms. If quantitative rights are community groundwater management can involve not established and credibly enforced, trading any mix of instruments, including regulation, can create incentives for sellers to increase property rights, and pricing. groundwater extraction and worsen the problem of overexploitation. As described in the following chapter, many instances of successful community groundwater The scale of the challenge of implementing management in India are characterized by the groundwater property rights is made clear by presence of charismatic leaders or are very location the experiences of other countries. After 20 years specific, and therefore do not offer a process-based of nationalizing groundwater and instituting a approach or a model that can be implemented at system of groundwater use permits, the recording scale. Internationally, the systematic and large- of groundwater rights remains incomplete in scale experience in community-based groundwater Spain and only less than a quarter of groundwater management comes principally from Mexico and structures have been registered. Mexico has Spain, which have adopted community-based similarly lagged behind in registering the water models as the central element of their official rights of the 96,000 tubewell irrigators that groundwater governance and management account for 80 percent of the total groundwater policy. In both these countries, groundwater user use in the country (Shah 2009). Measures taken in associations or aquifer management councils Australia and the United States have generally been have been statutorily promoted as the institutions considered successful but involve exempting the for collective and participatory self-governance relatively small groundwater users for the purpose of aquifers. While these community institutions of reducing transaction costs. Hence, Nebraska have been successful in some regards, they have targets groundwater wells with a pump capacity not been able to achieve the basic objective of of 50 gallons per minute or more, and Australia demand management to ensure sustainable use of does not regulate groundwater for those irrigating groundwater resources. In Mexico, for example, the less than 2 hectares of land. It has been estimated aquifer management councils (called COTAS) have that adopting a similar de minimis approach in achieved significant results in raising groundwater India would leave more than 95 percent of users user awareness and in promoting watershed outside the system (Shah 2009). If a property conservation (GW-MATE CP-10), but have failed in rights-based approach were to be developed for making any impact on groundwater abstractions. managing abstractions by such a large number It has been noted that the COTAS have avoided the of small abstractors, it is clear that it could only be task of monitoring actual groundwater withdrawals implemented by users themselves, which again by the farmers, and in general are not likely to points to the inevitability of community self- survive as sustainable farmer organizations if the governance models. National Water Commission were to stop paying their dues (Shah 2009). Community management of groundwater Notwithstanding these general experiences Strictly speaking, community groundwater with systematic adoption of community-led management refers not to a specific instrument groundwater management approaches, there are but to a means of implementing management interesting points of light. The Santo Domingo interventions. The key is that the resource user aquifer in Mexico was severely depleted due to community (instead of the state) is the primary excessive abstractions for irrigated agriculture, custodian of groundwater and is charged with and regulations were issued in 1992 to address A Semblance of Sufficiency: Institutional Framework of Groundwater Management in India 57 the problem. When the regulatory measures were management approaches, the available global found to be having little effect, the COTAS took the experience offers little direction for design of lead in designing and implementing incentives such interventions. Developing a framework for for increasing irrigation efficiency, rehabilitating design and implementation of community-based pumping equipment, installing and monitoring groundwater management in different settings groundwater abstraction meters, and monitoring of India is hence the central part of the challenge groundwater levels. With strong support from of addressing groundwater overexploitation, and the National Water Commission, these measures the following chapter is dedicated to a detailed resulted in more than 60 percent reduction in presentation of lessons from Indian experiences groundwater abstractions from 1995 to 2006, for developing such a framework. with the water table rising from 130 meters to 8 meters below ground level (Cordova Urrutia Limitations of standard instruments of 2007). While the community management model groundwater management for addressing has obviously succeeded in meeting the basic overexploitation in India objective of sustainable groundwater use in Santo Even though a difficult political economy is often Domingo, the secret to this success lay in the fact cited as the primary reason for the infeasibility of that the user community for this aquifer consisted legislative reforms to introduce effective regulation, of a relatively small number of commercial farmers groundwater pricing, or property rights, it is also who could afford to invest in water-saving irrigation clear that the appropriateness of these prescriptions and to buy the groundwater rights of those willing is doubtful for most of the groundwater settings in to give up irrigated agriculture. The case of the India. Therefore, front-ended policy reform focused Ogallala aquifer (in the High Plains region of the on these approaches is not a credible solution to United States, and accounting for one fifth of the the problem of groundwater overexploitation total wheat, corn, cotton, and cattle production of the country) is often offered as another example in India, at least not until the central "how to" of successful community-based groundwater challenges of implementation can be resolved. management. Since the recharge rates into the Since it is unrealistic to expect that the state will aquifer are very small compared to both storage ever have sufficient administrative resources to and abstractions, aquifer communities have directly implement management interventions, attempted to undertake, and are succeeding community-based management approaches in achieving, a managed depletion rather than emerge by default as the only viable mechanism, sustainable management of the aquifer (Terrell, especially in rural agricultural settings with a large Johnson, and Segarra 2002). number of users. However, it is also clear that there are no templates available for designing An assessment of these experiences for possible community-based groundwater management application in India indicates that merely models, and that India will likely need a home- substituting the community for the state cannot grown solution. work unless the groundwater management interventions are structured to serve the basic Conclusion interests of the users, taking into account the socioeconomic realities of each particular The review of the formal institutional environment groundwater setting (Planning Commission 2007). for groundwater use in India reveals that there do Therefore, while it is clear that the circumstances not exist credible mechanisms that can directly of groundwater use in most settings of India influence groundwater development and use. This necessitate the adoption of community-based lack of an active and direct management framework 58 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India may not be so unexpected, because the explosive chapter presents a detailed case study of the Andhra growth in groundwater use that is causing the Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems overexploitation of aquifers has essentially been Project (APFAMGS), a community-led groundwater furtive, and continues to happen outside the management initiative where hundreds of domain of the government. Groundwater therefore communities have achieved remarkable results remains essentially ungoverned: the turning on of in moving towards sustainable groundwater use. the borewell pump by a farmer in most of the Indian This example, along with the emerging lessons countryside is an act unfettered by any central, from various other community-led initiatives, state, or local law or administrative control. The title indicates that carefully designed community- of a comprehensive account of groundwater use in based approaches hold significant promise for South Asia aptly refers to the current situation as addressing groundwater overexploitation issues, "anarchy" (Shah 2009), and it is only very recently especially in hard-rock aquifers. The example of that the crisis of overexploitation has started to APFAMGS emphasizes the imperative of defining push the issue of groundwater governance into the groundwater management objectives and domain of the state. designing a management approach according to the specific local hydrogeological and water use An assessment of different groundwater realities. At the same time, the radical achievements management instruments in the macro context of this initiative challenge some of the underlying of resource use patterns and the institutional assumptions in the discourse and practice of environment in India points to the suitability of groundwater management in India, especially the community-based groundwater management notion that legal and policy reform is a necessary approaches, which rely primarily on the voluntary first condition for attempting groundwater action of resource user communities. The next management in the country. A Semblance of Sufficiency: Institutional Framework of Groundwater Management in India 59 60 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India A Groundswell of Change: Potential of Community Groundwater Management in India Introduction: The promise of printed books in India, has inspired communities community management across the country to engage in conservation and revitalization of local water systems. Anna A search for successful examples of community Hazare and his disciple Popat Rao Pawar, both management of water resources in India brings up recognized with national awards for their work, the names of charismatic leaders who have inspired have set perhaps the best-known examples brilliant action by communities on conservation of community revival through participatory and stewardship of their local water resources. watershed and water resource management in The sagas of these leaders and communities, villages in Maharashtra. Popat Rao Pawar's village scattered across India, are a significant element of Hiwre Bazaar presents a shining example of the discourse on community management of of community self-regulation of groundwater, water resources, because they serve as rare points where farmers in a semiarid agricultural setting of light in an otherwise dismal scenario of neglect, have voluntarily limited irrigation to dug wells, mismanagement, and degradation. and where community uptake of government programs on watershed development and Rajendra Singh, proclaimed the "water man groundwater recharge has transformed a village of India", has led numerous rural communities previously stricken by regular droughts and crop in the Aravali hills of Rajasthan to undertake failures into one of the most prosperous villages watershed development, construction and care of the country. of traditional water bodies, and formation of local governance mechanisms, leading to tangible Each of these stories is different in its genesis, improvements in lives and livelihoods and an approach, emphasis of efforts, and resulting almost mythical resurrection of dried-up rivers. achievements, and each is tied uniquely to Anupam Mishra, through his simple book Aaj bhi local natural conditions and social milieus. khare hain talaab ("Ponds are still relevant today"), Collectively, these examples have created within spurred the renewal of interest in community the national discourse constituencies of support water management systems. The book, which for a paradigm that provides an alternative to the is intentionally not copyrighted but available state control of water resources. In the context in 14 languages and one of the most widely of community groundwater management, A Groundswell of Change: Potential of Community Groundwater Management in India 61 these examples of watershed development Project, which is chosen for illustrating the indicate that under appropriate conditions key emerging lessons on community-based and with adequate leadership communities groundwater management. can successfully come together to work on augmenting the supply of local water resources. Background: Groundwater in Andhra However, as discussed in the preceding chapters, Pradesh increased supply cannot address the challenge of groundwater overexploitation in India. Given Around 85 percent of the land area of Andhra the widening gap between the actual and Pradesh is underlain by hard-rock aquifers. sustainable levels of groundwater abstraction, There has been a rapid growth in the number of any credible management strategy needs to borewells in the state over the last three decades, have at its core demand-side management of to the current estimated total of at least 1.74 groundwater, which remains notoriously difficult million, with depths steadily increasing during to achieve. this period from about 30 meters to over 60 meters. While this period has seen a twofold-plus Even more importantly, while these examples increase in the area under groundwater irrigation, provide inspiration, they do not come close to with very little public investment in groundwater providing a model that governments can support management, the area under surface irrigation and implement at the scale required for managing has not increased over the same period (Figure groundwater overexploitation in the country. The 4.1), despite substantial investments. key questions for community management of groundwater are therefore the following: But this massive expansion of groundwater use Is there a viable model of demand- has had serious impacts. In 2008, 300 of the 1,227 side management of groundwater by groundwater blocks in the state were at critical communities? Can the government engage or overexploited levels, and a further 208 were at with communities to facilitate collective the semi-critical level. In groundwater blocks that action on groundwater management, and if are outside the command area of canals, average yes, how? resource use is 78 percent of the total potentially available groundwater replenishment, and in many Are scale interventions possible? More districts it has risen to above 100 percent. specifically, for a vast majority of India's 600,000-plus villages, which are often not blessed with brilliant local leadership and the Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed unique natural and social settings enabling Groundwater Systems Project that leadership, could there be a process- based approach that can be implemented The Andhra Pradesh Farmer-Managed to address a crisis that deepens with every Groundwater Systems Project (APFAMGS) is a passing day? nationally executed project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations It is against the background of these questions (FAO) in India, implemented by a nodal executing that the experiences of community groundwater agency in seven drought-prone districts of management in Andhra Pradesh are presented in Andhra Pradesh. The objective of the project the following sections. Most of the presentation is to equip groundwater user farmers with the is focused on a detailed discussion of the Andhra necessary data, skills, and knowledge to manage Pradesh Farmer-Managed Groundwater Systems the groundwater resources available to them in 62 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Figure 4.1 Evolution of total areas irrigated under groundwater and surface water in Andhra Pradesh, 1978­2008 8.0 Total irrigated area 7.0 From surface water sources From groundwater sources Area under irrigation (million hectares) 6.0 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 In some areas spontaneous conjunctive use is practiced -- but dominant source only is accounted for here 0.0 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 a sustainable manner, mainly through managing APFAMGS approach and monitoring their own demand. Under the present Study and Technical Assistance Initiative The core concept of APFAMGS is that sustainable on Groundwater Management in India, the management of groundwater is feasible only if World Bank commissioned a farmer survey and users understand its occurrence, cycle, and limited remote sensing analysis to assess water use, crop availability. In order to achieve this, the project has diversification, farmer incomes, and other aspects adopted an approach aimed at demystifying the of the project. APFAMGS also made available science of groundwater by translating the scientific its database covering the project physical area concepts of hydrogeology and groundwater and more than 25,000 participating farmer management and making them accessible to households. Assessments based on these diverse groundwater users who often have limited literacy data indicate that more than 500 communities in skills. The education is participatory and emphasizes different agroeconomic settings across the project nonformal modes of learning. area have begun to bring their water use in line with groundwater availability, which includes Unlike the standard practice whereby the targeted reduction in groundwater abstractions in the community is a mostly passive recipient of technical years when the recharge is low. The challenge of information on the status of their local resources, addressing groundwater overexploitation has seen the APFAMGS approach engages the farmers in few successes, especially in developing countries. data collection and analysis, thereby building Although APFAMGS is still ongoing and a final their understanding of the dynamics and status results assessment has not been conducted, these of groundwater in the local aquifers. The project achievements of the project make it stand out as provides farmers with the equipment and skills to the first global example of large-scale success in collect and analyze rainfall and groundwater data. community management of groundwater use. APFAMGS farmers are measuring and keeping A Groundswell of Change: Potential of Community Groundwater Management in India 63 daily track of rainfall, water levels, and well yields, monitoring and crop water budgeting. The core calculating groundwater recharge from monsoonal organizational component of the project is the rainfall, and estimating their annual water use groundwater management committee, a village- based on planned cropping patterns. The project level community-based institution comprising all is essentially transforming farmers into "barefoot groundwater users in the community, particularly hydrogeologists". APFAMGS also facilitates access men and women farmers. The groundwater to information about water-saving techniques, management committees of all the villages sitting improved agricultural practices, and ways to regulate atop an aquifer are federated into an aquifer-level and manage farmers' own demand for water. The institution called the hydrological unit. The project project does not offer any incentives in the form of has established 555 groundwater management cash or subsidies to the farmers: the assumption is committees falling under 63 hydrological units, and that access to scientific data and knowledge will it is through these institutions that the communities enable farmers to make appropriate choices and in the project areas are collecting and analyzing decisions regarding agricultural practices and the data, and managing and implementing decisions use of groundwater resources. for sustainable groundwater management. This assumption holds particularly true for At first glance, the complex hydrogeology of agricultural settings in hard-rock aquifers, because hard-rock aquifers and the limited literacy of the information on groundwater availability, if the population engaged make participatory and when available, can serve as a very important hydrological monitoring seem too ambitious. input into the risk management paradigm of the However, keeping focus on education as the farmer. The hard-rock aquifers have low storage core objective of the project and employing and fast response times, so they fill quickly during creative nonformal modes of learning has the monsoon and also deplete quickly with use. made this not only possible but also successful More importantly, they do not generally have in achieving unprecedented outcomes in appreciable volumes of deeper long-term storage groundwater management. that can be tapped with benefit, as is the case with alluvial aquifers. As pumping continues during the Across the project area, approximately 7,000 rabi season, the water levels start falling and wells farmers have been trained to collect data that are start going dry, with attendant consequences for important for understanding the local aquifers. standing crops. Therefore, having an estimate of Farmers donate the land for installation of rain the aquifer budget (available groundwater and gauges, and at each of the 203 rain gauge stations projected demand, as explained in the following a farmer records, every day, the rainfall at 8:30 a.m. sections) gives the farmers an important element of At more than 2,100 observation wells, farmers information on the risk to their rabi crop, and provides carry out daily and fortnightly measurements of this information in time before the rabi planting. groundwater levels, and also conduct fortnightly Repeating the experience over years provides a measurements of pump well discharges. In all, more frame of reference for farmers whereby they can than 3,500 farmers, men and women, are voluntarily correlate aquifer budget numbers in different years collecting data in 650 habitations across the project with the results of their cropping decisions. area. The data are maintained in registers kept at the groundwater management committee offices and APFAMGS process are also entered on village display boards. At the aquifer level, hydrological unit members are trained The two principal processes employed by to use these data for estimation of groundwater the project are participatory hydrological recharge into the aquifer following the end of the 64 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Sarojamma (center, holding the instrument) with other women farmers, using a water level indicator to measure groundwater level in an obsrervation well. Sarojamma is data collection volunteer for Muthayalapadu village (Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh) summer (southwest) monsoonal rains. Owing to farmers in attendance. Carrying out this process significant variations in local hydrogeology, the at the aquifer level is consistent with the physical calculations are specific for each aquifer and follow scale of the challenge, and also becomes a vehicle the standard methodology developed and used by for creating an aquifer community. Well-trained the Central Ground Water Board. facilitators manage the exercise, and the result of the crop water budgeting is reported back to The complement to participatory hydrological all habitations. The groundwater budget, arrived monitoring is crop water budgeting, whereby the at through broad-based collective action in the quantity of water required for the proposed rabi aquifer community and disseminated similarly (winter) planting is assessed at the aquifer level, through the community, crystallizes in one number and compared with the amount of groundwater the state of the aquifer and the gap between what actually available. The proposed water use is is available and what is cumulatively desired. derived by aggregating the information collected from farmers on their intended rabi planting. The awareness of this number brings into the The comparison of proposed water use with the decision-making world of each individual farmer available groundwater reserve gives the aquifer the knowledge of the status of aquifer reserves, budget, which permits the groundwater users to something that has historically been a black box see the net balance of water. Crop water budgeting for the farmers. Around the world, farmers have is a process bound in time, starting at the end of learned to look at the sky, soils, and perhaps the the summer monsoon and culminating before possibility of profit in the local market before the rabi planting in an aquiferwide meeting at deciding what crops to plant, but for the first time which the budget is produced with thousands of now farmers can take into account the availability A Groundswell of Change: Potential of Community Groundwater Management in India 65 of water in the shared aquifer, and plan their risk paddy (which can double the yields with only half accordingly. It is important to note that unlike as much water). The farmer water school employs most other attempts at community groundwater multiple learning cycles, and trained farmers management APFAMGS does not seek an learn further by becoming farmer facilitators agreement from communities to reduce their water and instructors for the school in their respective use, and the farmers are free to make crop planting habitations. The farmer water school has made decisions and extract groundwater as desired. The organizers, planners, and advocates out of farmers project therefore relies solely on the impact of (FAO 2008). The project has trained 1,700 farmer groundwater education to influence the individual facilitators, 33 percent of whom are women, and decisions of thousands of farmers regarding which the total outreach of the program is estimated at 1 crops and how much of each crop to grow in the million farmers. postmonsoonal season. APFAMGS outcomes: Demonstrating the The main vehicle for education and capacity potential of community management building in APFAMGS is the farmer water school, a meeting of around 25­30 farmers once every 15 The project outcomes presented here are from a days, with the learning process grounded in the collation of sources, including the 900-plus farmer farmers' own fields. Following the hydrological sample survey and remote sensing analysis of cycle centered around the monsoons, the farmer selected project areas conducted for the World water school runs from June to May. In addition Bank by the University of Hyderabad (Box 4.1); the to education on groundwater (participatory APFAMGS project database; and remote sensing hydrological monitoring and crop water analysis of project areas. The project is currently budgeting), the curriculum includes exposure ongoing, and therefore the results are preliminary to techniques and interventions that can enable at this stage. farmers to get higher returns from agriculture by switching crops, improving yields, and reducing The data indicate that in a majority of the project input costs. The farmers accordingly learn about areas, the interventions have succeeded in vermicomposting, green manuring, biofertilizers, beginning to build a link between water availability mulching, intercropping, improved irrigation and water use for agriculture. The core message of methods, and the system of rice intensification for the project, that groundwater abstraction over the Box 4.1 Farmer survey and remote sensing to assess early results of APFAMGS The main objectives of the farmer survey and the remote sensing analysis were (a) to compare the agricultural scenario and groundwater use patterns of farming households before and after the implementation of the project; and (b) to compare the current agricultural scenarios of groundwater user households in the project area with their counterparts in the nonproject areas. The remote sensing analysis was added to corroborate the APFAMGS data on cropping patterns in the project areas, and to establish a fast and robust technique for assessing cropping pattern differences in space and time. The farmer survey covered more than 900 farming households in both project and nonproject areas. The survey covered 8 hydrological units with predominantly field crop areas and 2 hydrological units with predominantly horticultural areas, out of a total of 63 project hydrological units. The surveys were conducted in the late rabi season of 2007­08, and the survey questionnaire covered a number of quantitative and qualitative dimensions of crop planning, farm economics, groundwater use, and farmer decision making. The remote sensing images of selected project areas during the rabi season in different years were used to independently establish the extent of crop pattern shifts. 66 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Figure 4.2 Emerging evidence of APFAMGS communities aligning groundwater use with availability 8 Water availability and use in Chandrasagar Hydrological Unit 7 6 5 Million cubic meters 4 3 2 1 0 2005­06 2006­07 2007­08 Water availability, rabi plan Actual water use, rabi long term needs to be aligned with water availability, largest fraction of groundwater withdrawals. is taking hold. This is suggested by the emerging Survey results from the project areas show that of positive correlation between water availability the 14 possible factors influencing rabi cropping and water use in a number of project hydrological decisions, information on groundwater availability units. In the years when water availability is low is the factor reported most often by farmers. at the beginning of the rabi season (either due to low rainfall and consequently low recharge, or The reductions in water use in these areas are due to high groundwater abstractions in the kharif achieved by a combination of crop diversification season decreasing availability for the rabi season), and water-saving irrigation methods. Six of the eight groundwater use is reduced in these aquifers hydrological units sampled in the farmer survey (Figure 4.2). This dynamic is counter to the normal reported a reduction in the area under high-water- behavior whereby water availability in the aquifers use crops (crops with more than 800 millimeters is not a factor influencing groundwater use, and water requirement), with 50 percent reductions aquifer depletion often worsens in drier years. from baseline over two years in some cases. The This path-breaking achievement is beginning to cumulative changes by crop in the total project emerge in a number of hydrological units under area over a recent two-year period are depicted in the project, and is likely to result from the impact Figure 4.3. The changes have been accompanied by of groundwater availability information on farmer a significant (43 percent) reduction in rabi paddy decision making, as agriculture accounts for the area. In contrast, the total area under rabi paddy A Groundswell of Change: Potential of Community Groundwater Management in India 67 Figure 4.3 APFAMGS: Shift in cropping patterns 2006­07 to 2007­08 10000 Total area in 2006­07 9000 Total area in 2007­08 8000 7000 Area in Hectares 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0 Sunflower Groundnut Chilli Bajra Sorghum Cotton Red gram Maize Ragi Tomato Black gram Castor Sugar cane Green gram Gingelly Rice in Andhra Pradesh continued to follow an upward It is important to note that farmers have not trend, increasing by 5 percent in this period.4 sacrificed profitability to reduce water use. Survey results show that project area farmers have Remote sensing analysis was used to conduct spot consistently improved their profitability, with the corroboration of crop pattern data in one selected net value of outputs nearly doubling during the hydrological unit (Yerravanka). The analysis is project period, with inferior and more erratic results based on identifying the remote sensing signature in similar nonproject areas (Table 4.1). of the high-water-use crops group (> 1,000 millimeters, including paddy, turmeric, banana, In terms of cumulative water abstractions, 42 and sugar cane) and distinguishing it from that of percent of the hydrological units have consistently the low-water-use crops group (< 375 millimeters, reduced the rabi draft over the three years of project comprising black gram, green gram, gingelly, operation, while 51 percent have reduced the draft and millet), and then deducing the area under intermittently, and only 7 percent have witnessed each group from satellite images during different an increase in groundwater draft during this period seasons. The analysis indicates that the area under (Figure 4.4). This impact is unprecedented, in terms high-water-use crops in Yerravanka decreased of reductions actually being realized in groundwater by almost 11 percent from 2004­05 to 2007­08, draft, and in terms of the geographic extent of this whereas the area under the low-water-use crops impact, covering dozens of aquifers and hundreds increased by roughly the same amount. of communities (Figure 4.5). While these results are preliminary and pose a number of questions 4 Personal communication with Department of Economics and Statistics, Government of Andhra Pradesh, 2008. on how exactly this impact has been achieved, 68 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Table 4.1 Net value of outputs for project and nonproject areas Net value of outputs per acre (rupees, current year prices) Hydrological unit/type of area Current year Base year % change Project areas: field crops Chandrasagar 16,838 8,987 87.35 Mallapavagu 9,884 5,835 69.39 Nakillavagu 13,339 6,301 111.72 Narsireeddypallyvagu 11,208 8,378 33.78 Erravagu 7,042 5,317 32.43 Peetheruvagu 7,583 7,124 6.44 Vajralavanka 18,051 9,420 91.62 Nonproject areas: field crops Nonproject areas near Chandrasagar 4,348 6,415 ­32.22 Nonproject areas near Mallapavagu 3,491 2,605 34.01 Nonproject areas near Peetheruvagu 2,500 5,173 ­51.67 they do indicate that the APFAMGS project, with Passive versus participatory education an estimated outreach of 1 million farmers, may A comparison between APFAMGS and the be the first example globally of large-scale success community groundwater management pilots in groundwater management by communities. ongoing under the World Bank-supported projects Furthermore, the approach is quite economical, in Maharashtra illustrates two different approaches with the average cost per village community for making groundwater information available estimated at US$ 2,000 (Rupees 100,000) per year. to communities. In the Maharashtra pilots, the Groundwater Survey and Development Agency Unpacking the magic: Success in community conducts the technical assessment of groundwater management of groundwater availability and use. The support agency recruited This section presents a deeper examination of certain salient aspects of the design of APFAMGS, as a case study in the "how-to-do" of community- Figure 4.4 Changes in groundwater draft in APFAMGS based groundwater management. The hydrological units "what-to-do" elements for successful community Groundwater pumping changes in APFAMGS action on groundwater management are broadly hydrological units known, and are often encapsulated in a three- Groundwater pronged approach: (a) availability of actionable pumping Groundwater increased pumping local-level information on groundwater; (b) social 7% increased mobilization and organization for community 7% action; and (c) provision of incentives to facilitate change, for example credit and extension services and market linkages. As illustrated below, the details of how these three elements are designed Groundwater determine to a very large extent the success or pumping intermittently failure of community groundwater management decreased efforts. 51% A Groundswell of Change: Potential of Community Groundwater Management in India 69 Figure 4.5 APFAMGS hydrological units showing consistent reductions in groundwater draft Hydrological units showing consistent decrease in groundwater draft 20 18 2005­06 2006­07 2007­08 16 Draft, million cubic meters 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Miitameedipalli Mulabandla Bavanasi Rallavagu Erravanka Bokkineru Thundlavagu Kanugalavagu Erravanka 2 Peddavanka Mekaleru Thandrasila Chandravagu Konetivanka Satyammakunta Peddavanka 2 Upparavanka B.k.Vanka Lothuvagu Bogolu vagu Seetanagulavaram Naidupallivagu Bodicherla Chavatavagu Mynapuramvanka for the aquifer pilot implementation then organizes allows people to "emerge as conscious makers of dissemination of this information in the aquifer their own culture", and to "reject their role as mere communities. In contrast, APFAMGS communities objects in nature and social history and undertake to generate the information themselves ­ they are become subjects of their own destiny" (Freire 1973). the "barefoot hydrogeologists" engaging in and effectively leading the processes of data collection Engaging the community and analysis, as described earlier. Whereas in one Of the APFAMGS budget, 98 percent is dedicated case the community tends to accept the numbers to education and building community processes, of the groundwater budget with bemused while less than 2 percent is spent on supply indifference, in the other case the community is augmentation (through groundwater recharge engaged to the extent of not only learning to use structures). APFAMGS has succeeded in establishing but also improvising the tools, templates, and strong community processes by formally engaging techniques for estimating water availability and all groundwater users and using traditional and well- water use. In a telling incident in Cuddapah district, established vehicles of community mobilization. the district hydrogeologist from the Andhra The project is rooted in a strong participatory, Pradesh Groundwater Department acknowledged capacity-building, and gender equity approach. It that the group of barely literate women standing in the field and explaining the local groundwater is significant that more than 2,000 women farmer dynamics almost rivaled his professional staff in volunteers are engaged in data collection, and fully their knowledge of the subject. one third of the 1,700 farmer facilitators are women. The culmination of crop water budgeting, at an The project approach is based on nonformal means aquifer-level meeting in autumn before the rabi of education, and echoes seminal thinking in the planting, is a big affair, with thousands of farmers pedagogy for empowering people. The focus is on in attendance as the final budget is calculated. the triggering of a critical consciousness, which The final budget number has great significance for 70 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India the communities, but this significance owes more participation in the project promises to the people to the process that produces this number than to a reliable understanding of this critical resource. the number itself. The project's success comes in This is a powerful hook for enlivening the practice big part from its clear emphasis on community of groundwater management, as is borne out by institutions, education, and capacity building, and the results of the farmer survey, which showed from its recognition that these dimensions are that for a large majority of surveyed APFAMGS challenging enough to merit focusing a significant farmers, factors pertaining to profitability of crops, proportion of the resources on them. In contrast, availability of groundwater, and knowledge of while community participation and awareness improved agricultural techniques are the primary are theoretically recognized as crucial elements in determinants of project participation. most pilots, the budgets devoted to them (rarely more than 10­20 percent of the total) betray the Fighting the right battle on collective action actual degree of emphasis and attention. While APFAMGS has achieved notable success in Another significant design feature of APFAMGS achieving collective action in project communities, is that it engages the farmers around a crucial it is important to note the aspects where collective element of information that is vital for planning action is sought in the project, and even more the agricultural operations. As explained earlier, importantly, where collective action is not sought. in areas with limited-storage hard-rock aquifers, As described in preceding sections, the project having an estimate of the water availability in the has established a robust and vibrant process that aquifer at the time of dry season planting gives through collective action in aquifer communities the farmers extremely valuable information on the generates knowledge of the balance between risk to their crops. The history of farmers' familiarity groundwater availability and its use. However, the with borewells spans barely three decades, and project does not seek collective action on reducing Crop Water Budgeting exercise in progress for Mulabandhala Hydrologic Unit (Kadapa district, Andhra Pradesh). groundwater abstractions. The communities do from an altruistic collective action, but from the not set collective targets for crop diversification individual risk management decisions of thousands or water use reduction, and the individual farmers of farmers. This makes the APFAMGS model robust are free to plant what they want and pump as they and replicable, since no authoritative leadership is desire. This is in stark contrast to other attempts at required for enforcement of compacts. community water management of groundwater, where the ultimate objective is to get communities Emphasis on increasing farmer incomes to agree on reducing excessive abstraction and Convincing farmers to reduce water use is the to ensure that the agreements are implemented. most difficult part of groundwater management, Such collective compacts, even when agreed, are because without adequate mitigating measures notoriously difficult to implement because the this necessarily equates with diminished returns farmers always have the incentive to derive extra from agriculture. Exhortations to use less water benefit by cheating or free riding. Even in cases are therefore met with skepticism from farmers, where charismatic leaders and communities led by especially those working on precarious margins in them have created "islands of salvation", a deeper dryland areas. There are some examples where a look reveals a very complex dynamic of culture, powerful charismatic leader (such Popat Rao Pawar tradition, charisma, coercion, and in some cases, in Hiwre Bazaar) has convinced the community absolute authority, that make such compacts work to undergo a temporary sacrifice of water use (Sharma 2006). reductions to achieve long-term improvements, but in general, a message heavy on reducing The fact that APFAMGS is achieving water use groundwater abstraction is a kiss of death for reductions without seeking or building collective community-based groundwater management. compacts on water use reduction is explained by Figuring out how to sweeten the bitter pill of an interesting combination of factors. The limited demand-side management holds the key to storage and the absence of deeper and abundant unlocking its potential. water-bearing layers in hard-rock aquifers create a condition where, with some exceptions, sinking With emphasis on improved farming and irrigation a deeper well to pump out more water is not techniques, and with the use of innovative and necessarily a successful strategy. With experience, radically effective communications on groundwater farmers are learning that it is more prudent to plan status, APFAMGS primarily taps the farmers' according to estimated groundwater availability incentive to save their dry season crops and to and to focus on protecting the planted crop. improve crop yields. Instead of coaxing farmers to Farmers indicate clearly in interviews that with the adopt water-saving measures with the objective of knowledge of the groundwater budget from the reducing groundwater use, APFAMGS encourages crop water budgeting exercise, their rabi planting farmers to select cropping patterns and irrigation decisions are not affected by the possibility interventions that minimize risk and maximize of other farmers' using more water-intensive return. With reductions in water use following crops. "It doesn't bother me, but he will need to organically from the profit-oriented decisions of borrow more from the moneylender next year", thousands of individual farmers, APFAMGS has one farmer commented when asked to respond found a very attractive horse to pull the wagon of to the possibility of another farmer deciding to reducing groundwater use. grow more paddy in a year with especially scarce groundwater. It is evident that the reductions in That reductions in groundwater abstraction groundwater draft in APFAMGS are not coming can be combined with increased agricultural 72 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Box 4.2 Economic modeling of groundwater resource use behavior in rural India The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) was commissioned under this initiative to develop a linked agricultural­ hydrological model that could capture the essential interactions between groundwater availability, agricultural production, and resource use behavior in rural India. The key components of the exercise were (a) constructing an adequate representation of economic behavior with respect to crop production and water usage by farmers; (b) creating an adequate representation of the hydrological characteristics and dynamics of the aquifer; and (c) creating a linkage between the modeling components in (a) and (b), such that the effects of various factors (such as crop profit values and penalties for irrigation demand) could be observed on farmer welfare and behavior, as well as on the natural resource base. While farmer behavior may generally be characterized to be of the noncooperative type, the modeling objective was to discern and quantify incentives or disincentives that could bring about a shift towards cooperative behavior. The crop production model developed for this exercise incorporated both economic and agronomic dimensions for determining crop production response to policy- and environment-driven factors. The groundwater resource usage and aquifer dynamics were simulated by assuming a two-cell aquifer model. The necessary agronomic and aquifer data were collected from the two distinct settings of hard-rock aquifers in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh respectively. production in the hard-rock aquifers of India is conducted with the detailed data obtained from also substantiated by farmer behavior modeling two villages ­ Hiwre Bazaar (Maharashtra) and simulations conducted by the International Food Siddyapalli (under APFAMGS in Andhra Pradesh). Policy Research Institute under commission The model realistically captures the cropping and from the World Bank (Box 4.2). The simulations pumping dynamics of communities, as illustrated model the rational profit-maximizing behavior of in Figure 4.6, which shows the derived demand farmers situated within the given hydrological and for water, indicating the value per hectare of agroeconomic environments, comprising cropping irrigation across seasons. Figure 4.7 shows the options, crop yields, input and output prices, and difference in net benefits between a myopic aquifer characteristics. A coupled agricultural groundwater abstraction scenario and the optimal production and groundwater use model was groundwater abstraction scenario, demonstrating developed, and two separate simulations that the initial gain in net benefit enjoyed in the Figure 4.6 Per hectare demand for water in kharif and rabi Figure 4.7 Net benefits under optimal and suboptimal seasons in Hiwre Bazaar groundwater extraction in Hiwre Bazaar 350 23.7 Value per ha per unit water (Rs/ha/m-ha) Kharif 23.6 Optimal pumping 300 Net benefits per time period Rabi 23.6 Myopic pumping 250 23.5 (Crores Rs.) 200 23.5 23.4 150 23.4 100 23.3 23.3 50 23.2 0 23.2 10 20 40 80 160 320 600 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Water quantity available (m-ha) Time periods (years/planting cycles) A Groundswell of Change: Potential of Community Groundwater Management in India 73 myopic extraction case is quickly dissipated as the ensuring the sustainability of groundwater use. groundwater table drops and higher pumping The development of the concept and practice of costs are incurred. participatory hydrological monitoring was a key innovation of APWELL, which in many ways was the The empirical evidence from Andhra Pradesh precursor of APFAMGS. Working through technical is also substantiated by the behavior modeling as well as social interventions, the project achieved simulations for Siddyapalli village. In this case, significant outcomes in improving the efficiency of simulations of crop areas were conducted under groundwater use in agriculture, crop diversification different combinations of crop profit and irrigation with increasing crop yields and agricultural demand penalty values, where the latter parameter incomes, and associated socioeconomic and is introduced to make water demand reduction an environmental benefits. element of the objective function of the farmer. While it is intuitively clear that APFAMGS farmers The ongoing World Bank-financed Andhra Pradesh respond to crop profit signals, Figure 4.8 shows that Community-based Tanks Management Project significant crop pattern shifts do not come about has a dedicated groundwater management unless water demand reduction is strengthened as component, focused on implementing a part of the objective function. community-based groundwater management in an essentially conjunctive use setting by The main lesson here, therefore, is that community- targeting groundwater users within the command based groundwater management programs should and influence zones of irrigation tanks. The be designed with a shared focus on improving groundwater-related activities under the project agricultural productivity, incomes, and water include delineation of the groundwater influence conservation, and that water use reductions should zone of irrigation tanks through participatory not be explicitly sought but realized by aligning field surveys, organization of groundwater efficient irrigation interventions with farmer user groups in the influence zone of the tanks, incentives for higher profits. and representative co-option of groundwater users from outside the command area into More points of light: Community-led the command area water user associations. groundwater management in other The project is adapting and implementing the initiatives in Andhra Pradesh In addition to APFAMGS, community-based Figure 4.8 Crop areas in Siddyapalli under different groundwater management approaches have combinations of crop profit value and irrigation been pioneered in Andhra Pradesh through other demand penalty projects such as the Andhra Pradesh Groundwater 25 Borewell Irrigation Schemes (APWELL), the Andhra rice Pradesh Community-based Tanks Management Area of crop (hectares) 20 Project, and the Andhra Pradesh Drought cotton 15 Adaptation Initiative. sun ower 10 chilli The primary objective of APWELL was to trigger coriander groundwater development for poverty reduction 5 sesame in the drought-prone districts of Andhra Pradesh, 0 but the project efforts were also dedicated towards 99%/1 50%/1 10%/1 10%/5 10%/9 developing community-based approaches for % of profit value/Rs per mm-ha water demand 74 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India APFAMGS approach of participatory hydrological Availability of indicators. Reliable and valid monitoring and crop water budgeting in order to indicators of the existing state of the resource meet the objectives of improving groundwater can be provided. management and increasing agricultural Predictability. The yield of the resource can productivity and incomes. be predicted. The Andhra Pradesh Drought Adaptation Initiative Spatial extent. The physical expanse of is a pilot program supported by the World Bank the resource is such that the dependent that is being implemented in two districts of users can meaningfully come together for Andhra Pradesh by the Department of Rural collective action. Development. Five shared-groundwater pilots are being implemented under this initiative, whereby In addition, the following characteristics individual borewell owners are collectively agreeing of the resource users themselves are also to reduce groundwater demand through use of important: water-saving methods (such as a shared pipeline Salience. The users have a significant level of network for drip and sprinkler systems), crop dependence on the resource. pattern shifts, and a ban on new well drillings. A key element of the Drought Adaptation Initiative is to Common understanding. The users share develop and pilot implementation arrangements a common understanding of the resource whereby a nodal nongovernmental organization dynamics and how their actions can influence can coordinate the multisectoral inputs required the resource. from various state departments and agencies in Low discount rate. The users anticipate support of community groundwater management significant reliance on the resource continued and other objectives. into the future. Trust and reciprocity. The user community Situating the challenge: Groundwater has the ties and connections that facilitate as a common property resource collective action. The design of sustainable groundwater Autonomy. Resource users have control over management approaches can be rigorously the resource. undertaken by considering groundwater as a common property resource, whereby the Prior organizational experience and local possibilities of successful collective action are leadership. The users have experience and determined by a range of factors pertaining to skills of organization and leadership required the relationship between the community and the for collective action. resource (Ostrom 2001). Accordingly, the likelihood When the challenges of community management of communities evolving and maintaining regimes of surface water irrigation and groundwater of common property resource management irrigation are compared in this context (Schlager depends on the following characteristics of 2007), it becomes evident that the special the resource: nature of groundwater makes the latter a much Feasible improvement. The resource is not harder problem to solve. The physical extent of so degraded that users perceive no benefit aquifers is often too large to easily create a user from collective action; nor is it so underutilized community; the resource is unseen and its state that users perceive little need for action. is often hard to assess; and the complexities of A Groundswell of Change: Potential of Community Groundwater Management in India 75 hydrogeology make common understanding Conclusions: Emerging directions of resource dynamics difficult to achieve. Given for community-based groundwater these challenges, and the insights from the management common property resource school, it is clear that the design of a community groundwater The lessons emerging from the cumulative management approach needs to go beyond the experience in community groundwater familiar domains of hydrology, regulation, and management in India point to the following economics, and to incorporate the elements of guiding principles: social capital formation, behavioral psychology, 1. Community-based groundwater nonformal education, communication, and management should not require sacrifice. leadership development, which are all crucial for An important lesson from the experience successful community action. APFAMGS provides evidence that this can be done, and of what can so far is that there is no need for a sacrificial be achieved if it is done. attitude to groundwater management, as groundwater demand management At the same time, APFAMGS provides an encourages changes in cropping patterns, interesting twist to the common property resource irrigation techniques, and soil moisture perspective on groundwater. The collective action conservation that can also lead to improved in the project is limited to building a common water productivity and farmer returns. The understanding of the groundwater dynamics, fact that agriculture in large parts of India is and aligning groundwater use with availability operating far below optimal productivity is is actually achieved through individual profit- therefore an opportunity in disguise, because motivated decisions of farmers without any the baseline of relatively inefficient water collective agreement. As described above, the use and low crop yields means that there particular hydrogeology of hard-rock aquifers is ample scope for improving profits and allows APFAMGS to sidestep the more difficult reducing water use at the same time, and that issue of creating and implementing a collective sustainable groundwater management need compact on water use reduction. Hard-rock not come at the price of sacrificing gain in aquifers underlie 65 percent of India's land, and agricultural incomes. APFAMGS provides a demonstrated approach for tackling groundwater overexploitation in 2. Participatory engagement should be these areas. It is not clear whether such a model the core focus of community-based would work in alluvial aquifers, where storage groundwater management investments. is many orders of magnitude higher than the Community-based groundwater management annual recharge, and where the gloomy scenario primarily entails building a social process of chasing the water table down to economically that can enable groundwater users to punishing depths can run unabated over much manage their interactions with the resource. longer periods. The key lesson, however, is that Making visible the otherwise invisible the quest for successful community action on resource of groundwater is a prerequisite groundwater management is not necessarily for engendering collective action. APFAMGS futile, and tangible improvements are possible if employs the best nonformal techniques "contrary to a mechanistic belief, the need to fully for educating nonliterate groundwater integrate the human dimension is highlighted" users, and has effectively created a popular (Kemper 2007). science movement encompassing multiple 76 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India dimensions of water use and agriculture in possible policy measures that are pragmatic the project areas. This focus on participatory and can strengthen community groundwater engagement in generating and sharing management include endorsement of knowledge on local resources is in stark contrast community groundwater management with most community-based groundwater institutions, and improving institutional management initiatives, where a majority of coordination amongst the various panchayati resources and efforts are concentrated on raj institutions dealing with different aspects supporting physical works (for augmenting of water resources at the village level. groundwater recharge) and on incentives such as subsidies for water-saving irrigation 5. Limitations of community-based techniques. For community management approaches need to be recognized. The efforts to succeed, it is clear that information, successful experiences of community-based education, and social mobilization need to be groundwater management owe much to recognized as core objectives, and supported their design being particularly suited to the by adequate resources. peculiar physical and socioeconomic settings of groundwater use. The APFAMGS model, 3. Community-based groundwater for example, seems to be well adapted to the management needs state engagement. recharge and emptying dynamics of hard-rock Groundwater overexploitation is a aquifers, which, as mentioned earlier, cover widespread problem in India. With an approximately two-thirds of India's aquifer ever-increasing number of aquifers facing settings. While APFAMGS could provide a overexploitation, the challenge can only be model for other hard-rock settings, it is not addressed through systemic action by the state. likely to work in geographically vast alluvial In addition to the scale issue, communities aquifers with significantly larger storage. need time and continued investments in Also, Andhra Pradesh has a particularly high capacity building before they can become density of social networks and a strong history genuinely capable of creating and leading of progressive social change in rural areas; it sustainable groundwater management. This is probable that the APFAMGS model would highlights the need for the state agencies to be significantly challenged in settings with take on a "lighthouse" function in order to different social dynamics (lower social capital ensure that community-based initiatives do or larger asymmetries in user populations, not fail because of lack of support and control, for example). Finally, it needs to be noted and to make sure that experiences from that the lessons emerging from the Andhra successful interventions such as APFAMGS Pradesh experiments with community-based remain available for replication. groundwater management are preliminary, since the projects are still ongoing and 4. Pragmatic policies can strengthen there is no hindsight to assess the long- community-based groundwater term sustainability of the results achieved. management. The bottom-up approaches Therefore, the available models of community stemming from on-the-ground community groundwater management would need action can be complemented by top-down careful and innovative piloting before they measures that can create an enabling can be replicated and scale interventions environment at the local level. Examples of become possible. A Groundswell of Change: Potential of Community Groundwater Management in India 77 Pragmatic Approaches for Managing Overexploited Aquifers in India Introduction in India nor feasible in the current political economy, pragmatic approaches that can start addressing There is an urgent need to change the status quo. the challenge now and largely within the existing The rapidly falling groundwater tables in many legislative framework need to be developed and parts of India present serious and immediate identified. Plan B, therefore, is essentially a game- human development and economic challenges. changer, which, through measures that are effective Groundwater overexploitation is threatening yet of low political cost, can shift the dynamic from a India's ability to meet the drinking water-related continuing debate on institutional issues to taking Millennium Development Goals in rural areas; it is concrete actions on the ground. affecting the livelihoods of a large number of largely poor subsistence farmers; and it is endangering the Conceptual basis of Plan B sustainability of agriculture and the long-term food security of the country. Even with the political economy considerations set aside, India ­ with the largest withdrawal of Given these pressing needs, the central and state groundwater in the world, through a number of governments in India are seeking to identify wells (approximately 20 million) that is orders of effective and politically feasible approaches for magnitude higher than in other countries, and addressing the problem. The efforts in the World with almost no correlation between groundwater Bank's groundwater management initiative availability and groundwater use ­ presents a have accordingly been focused on identifying unique case for groundwater management. For management strategies for promoting sustainable example, nowhere else in the world do hard-rock groundwater use within a systematic, economically aquifers, which represent close to two thirds of sound, and politically feasible framework. As India's land area, see the rates of exploitation discussed in the first chapter, the objective was to and heavy dependence that are common in develop a "Plan B" for groundwater management India. Furthermore, as described in Chapter 2, in India: given that the usual prescriptions of high- there is a plurality of contexts of groundwater level policy reform (for example groundwater overexploitation in India, and therefore the pricing and tradable property rights) may be management solutions need to be developed neither appropriate for groundwater management specifically for each of these contexts. Pragmatic Approaches for Managing Overexploited Aquifers in India 79 The classical institutional framework emerging sector policies. However, an analysis of the politics from the global discourse on and experiences around reform proposals such as increasing in groundwater management has four broad irrigation power tariffs indicates that they are categories of instruments and measures: widely unpopular with farmers. Contrary to the regulatory measures, economic instruments, claim that resistance to reform comes from affluent groundwater property rights, and community large farmers who benefit disproportionately from groundwater management. The applicability of the power subsidies, there is growing evidence that these approaches in Indian contexts is discussed energy costs to farmers have grown to become in the preceding chapters, along with comparative significant across the board in recent decades, and global experiences. Large-scale regulation of increasing power tariffs would land a serious blow groundwater use, for example, does not have any to small and marginal farmers (World Bank 2001; successful examples except in China. Groundwater Dossani and Ranganathan 2004; Dubash 2007). pricing and property rights, which often constitute Free or nominal-cost power for irrigation should the core policy prescriptions for groundwater be recognized as the political solution to the management in the global discourse and which politically charged issue of equitable government have been implemented with varying degrees of support to both farmers in canal command areas success in some countries, suffer from the same and groundwater-dependent farmers outside the weakness that is fatal in most Indian contexts ­ the commands, with the former benefiting from free astronomical transaction costs of implementation provision of irrigation infrastructure and much- with millions of small users spread over very large below-cost tariffs for surface irrigation water, while areas. There is also the question of whether the the latter have to make entirely private investments statutory implementation of such high-level policy for irrigation. The case for interventions such as reforms for groundwater management will actually rationalized power tariffs has to be made in the change the situation on the ground. Profound larger current picture of an anemic agricultural gaps between the de jure and de facto realities sector in the country, which, in its contrast with the are not uncommon in India. With a diffuse public rapidly growing industrial and service sectors, is good such as groundwater, whose development cleaving India into two disparate worlds ­ one that and management has remained for the most part is urban, globalized, and increasingly affluent; and in the private domain, governments in India may the other that is largely rural, poor, and agrarian, have the statutory authority to decree reforms perceived to have been "left behind", and iconized but not the capacity to actually implement them. poignantly in the spate of farmer suicides in recent Community management therefore offers an years in different states of the country. Reforms alternative mechanism to state enforcement for with significant impacts on agriculture will need to groundwater management, and, as discussed in be sold to the constituencies in this second India, the previous chapter, there is now a critical mass which is close to 60 percent of the total population. of experience for designing models that could be This is the inescapable burden of democracy, and viable at least for the hard-rock settings in India. the common arguments that attribute failure to implement a policy reform agenda to a "lack Sector policies, for example agricultural power of political will" in decision makers ignore this pricing and minimum support prices for crops, essential requirement of building constituencies of have emerged as powerful drivers of groundwater popular support. use, and some of the conceptually clearest interventions recommended for groundwater It is clear that in the long term policy distortions management involve correcting the incentive introduced by highly subsidized electricity will distortions regarding groundwater use in these need to be corrected to find a sustainable solution 80 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India to the groundwater overexploitation problem. context specific, and can be selected and adapted However, in purely practical terms, it needs to be to the varied contexts of intensive groundwater noted that the political actors who have attempted exploitation in India. Together, these interventions to withdraw the provision of free or cheap power can be seen as the building blocks of Plan B to farmers have either lost elections or have had ­ a game-changing action plan that comprises to quickly revise their positions (Shah et al. 2007). effective yet low-political-cost interventions, and With this record, any groundwater management that can shift the dynamic from a continuing debate approach that requires unpopular front-ended on institutional issues to taking concrete actions on policy reform, no matter how sensible, will not the ground. This approach should not be mistaken have any takers in the current political economy. for an easy way out; it would still require significant It has therefore been suggested that for the time institutional effort, change, and also addressing being it seems sensible "to take the nature of the vested interests. state as given rather than assume the nature of the state will change to resolve water sector problems" The recommended management interventions fall (Shah 2005, cited in World Bank 2005). into three broad categories: (a) community-based groundwater resource management; (b) targeted In an assessment of Indian democracy, Dreze and regulation; and (c) sectoral policy interventions Sen distinguish between ideals, institutions, and and coordination. As their success will be practice, and find that the main limitations relate to determined in large part by the ability of the state the quality of democratic practice (Dreze and Sen groundwater agencies to provide effective support, 2002). Drawing upon this analogy, it may be said the organizational improvement, strengthening, that the biggest constraints impacting groundwater capacity building, and relocation of these agencies management in India today pertain to the practice is identified as the core cross-cutting intervention of groundwater management, which arguably does and is presented first. not exist, despite the significance of groundwater as a critical resource for the country. Establishing Implementation action 1: Building capacity and strengthening this practice through ground- and adjusting the role of state groundwater level management interventions needs to be the institutions first priority for governments, and there is ample States have the primary responsibility for support in the current institutional environment managing and ensuring the sustainability of for the needed interventions. groundwater resources. In addition to their constitutional mandate, state agencies have Elements of Plan B: Building a practice an advantage in promoting groundwater of groundwater management management on the ground, because they are in a better position to: The findings of the World Bank's groundwater management initiative, drawing from analytical facilitate cross-sectoral coordination of work and implementation experiences in different groundwater resources at the most critical states, point towards a menu of pragmatic (state) level; management interventions. These interventions promote government­stakeholder can be implemented through a number of interaction (especially considering that possible entry-points, including state groundwater most state government departments have agencies, other line departments, or groundwater operational offices at district level, where users themselves. The targeted and flexible nature many of the local management measures will of these measures means that they can be highly need to be taken); Pragmatic Approaches for Managing Overexploited Aquifers in India 81 design groundwater management these shortcomings in the state agencies is not a approaches specific to the typologies and politically sensitive "hot potato", and could therefore user needs of local aquifers. be addressed as priority. Maharashtra provides a good example of taking the initiative on this front: However, groundwater agencies in the states are the technical resources and staff competencies of not adequately equipped for taking up these roles. the state Groundwater Survey and Development As described in Chapter 3, groundwater agencies Agency are being strengthened through various are located at relatively lower levels in the state programs, including support from World Bank- hierarchy and tend to have much less clout than financed projects. their counterpart departments focused on one of the main water uses, for example irrigation or The capacity of state groundwater institutions water supply. In many cases, there is no dedicated will need to be developed to ensure that they can state groundwater agency. The organizational perform the key functions of providing information structure, resources, and staff skill sets continue and technical support, enabling community to be oriented primarily towards groundwater management, and enforcing regulatory measures. development rather than management. The structure of state groundwater development and management agencies should derive from Groundwater management is more about enabling these key functions. Table 5.1 presents a broad the users to manage interactions among themselves, outline of how these functions could be formalized and with the aquifer, than about top-down managing in a state groundwater institution. of a natural resource, and a transformational shift would be needed to reflect this in the functioning of With community groundwater management state groundwater agencies. The task of addressing emerging as the most viable model, at least in Table 5.1 Suggested missions and functions for individual units within a state groundwater management agency Organizational unit/mission Main functions Information and planning unit Delineation of main groundwater bodies and priorities for promotion of community- Keeping updated resource and based groundwater management (including relationship with watersheds) user status aimed at contributing Hydrogeological and socioeconomic planning framework for replication and scaling- to sustainability, replicability, up strategy and identification of new community-based groundwater management and scaling up of groundwater initiatives, distinguishing essentially drinking water from resource management needs management initiatives Identification of critically endangered groundwater blocks to be notified Evaluation of resources of main groundwater bodies, in the form of information to community organizations, state government, and local authorities Establishing permanent policy dialogue with agricultural, land use planning, and urban, rural, and industrial state agencies Serving as a "lighthouse" to permanently monitor groundwater management initiatives for issues that put sustainability at risk Overall planning Preparation of procedures, guidelines, and standards State databasing, groundwater allocation, and granting of entitlements to selected users Conducting capacity-building and awareness-raising programs for groundwater users, nongovernmental organizations, stakeholders, politicians, bureaucrats, professionals, and technicians 82 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Survey, development, and Traditional hydrogeological surveying and improved groundwater quantity and quality demand management unit monitoring Ensuring that groundwater Keeping updated groundwater user inventory and profiles of groundwater uses supply development, recharge Ensuring quality control and quality assurance of construction, operation and enhancement, and demand maintenance, and agricultural and irrigation (and generally demand management) management measures are activities and outputs scientifically sound, economically Undertaking permanent critical, technical, and economic assessment and obtaining field reasonable, follow best evidence for updating guidelines for recharge enhancement measures professional practice, and are properly linked to irrigation and Ensuring formal linkages with irrigation and water supply projects water supply service providers Community management Keeping links with relevant panchayats enabling unit Coordinating community-based groundwater management pilot projects and Contributing to communities in establishing a nursery for community-based groundwater management initiatives community-based groundwater Keeping the necessary links with other government agencies and external support management initiatives agencies to ensure that groundwater users have access to inputs for making efficient and becoming leaders of sustainable beneficial use of the resource development processes Maintaining linkages with and capacity building of stakeholder organizations (first supporting design and implementation of community-based groundwater management initiatives, and later as part of lighthouse outreach capacity) Keeping a benchmarking system aimed at constructive competition among community- based groundwater management projects Regulatory unit Traditional hydrogeological surveying and improved groundwater quantity and quality Supporting local authorities in monitoring dealing with critically endangered Keeping updated groundwater user inventory and profiles of groundwater uses groundwater blocks Keeping links with and capacity building of relevant panchayats, local authorities, and district comptrollers Establishing agreements with local authorities to decentralize nonauthority enforcement functions Undertaking regulatory enforcement the hard-rock areas, it is important to ensure that highlights the importance of expanding the skills community-based initiatives get the required profile in the state groundwater agency by going support from the state groundwater agencies beyond the technical and monitoring functions to during the time that it takes for the communities include a management enabling function. More to genuinely become capable of managing importantly, this example demonstrates that with sustainable groundwater management regimes, the right support these internal organizational and that they are permanently monitored for changes can be readily implemented and can issues that put sustainability at risk. Therefore, the produce tangible results. community management enabling function is the most critical enhancement needed for the state Although dedicated state groundwater groundwater agencies. management agencies are desirable, this may not be possible in many states. A pragmatic and Recent experience from community groundwater organic approach would be needed to ensure management pilots being implemented under that the key functions are performed through two World Bank projects in Maharashtra (Box 5.1) organizational arrangements appropriate to Pragmatic Approaches for Managing Overexploited Aquifers in India 83 Box 5.1 Supporting effective groundwater agencies: Lessons learned from World Bank projects in Maharashtra The results of the technical assistance provided under this initiative to the Maharashtra Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project and the Maharashtra Water Sector Improvement Project highlight the importance of the enabling and nurturing role of state government agencies. Both projects include investments to support community aquifer management pilots in selected aquifers, with the Groundwater Survey and Development Agency as a key implementing agency. The Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project was the first project to design and implement the aquifer management pilots, and while its core focus area (rural water supply and sanitation) was very different from that of the Water Sector Improvement Project (irrigation), the groundwater pilots supported through the latter project can be considered second generation in that they were designed with the benefit of learning outcomes from the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project. Under the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project groundwater pilots, the role of the Groundwater Survey and Development Agency was confined to technical assessments, with the responsibilities of delineating and surveying pilot aquifers and preparing water budgets comparing water availability with water use. The awareness building and mobilization in aquifer communities around this information was conducted entirely by nongovernmental organizations contracted directly by the project implementation unit, which also managed the overall implementation of groundwater pilots. As the groundwater component was a very small fraction (less than 2 percent) of overall project activities, and as the Groundwater Survey and Development Agency was not directly involved, the implementation of groundwater pilots was slow and poorly integrated. The groundwater pilots of the Water Sector Improvement Project were explicitly designed with the lessons from the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project in mind. The Groundwater Survey and Development Agency is responsible for leading all aspects of the aquifer management pilots of the Water Sector Improvement Project. The agency receives funds directly from the central project implementing unit and is responsible for all procurement processes, including the hiring of nongovernmental organizations as support organizations for facilitating community-level organizational arrangements. Key agency staff are responsible for overall implementation of the pilots, with a nodal team leader at the state level complemented by pilot team leaders who actively participate in the establishment and functioning of village-level groundwater management committees and aquifer-level groundwater management associations. While the project is still under implementation, it is clear that expanding the role of the Groundwater Survey and Development Agency beyond its traditional mandate of providing technical support, and providing support for it to take up groundwater management functions, are proving beneficial to the implementation of the groundwater pilots. each state's local context. For example, in Andhra connected through the hydrological cycle in each Pradesh, the Department of Rural Development, river basin, planning and management of surface with its track record of success in community water and groundwater should be closely integrated development initiatives, could work closely with through a focus on conjunctive use. The proposal the Groundwater Department for facilitating currently under consideration in Maharashtra to community groundwater management. bring surface water and groundwater under the purview of the state water resources regulatory Where the groundwater agency is located in the authority is a welcome example in this regard, as state hierarchy is another crucial element of the long as the state groundwater agency is located at solution. It is of foremost importance that the state the appropriate level as described above. groundwater agency be located at an appropriate level in order for it to participate in and influence the Implementation action 2: Community-based dialogue on the important aspects of state (and even groundwater management national) policy on irrigation, agriculture, energy, land planning, and rural and urban development. The "what-to-do" elements of successful Since surface water and groundwater are intimately community action on groundwater management 84 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Women's Self-Help Group in Tahwapur village (Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh). The group is active on water management issues, and also rents agriculture equipment to farmers. are broadly known, and consist of actionable implementation in Andhra Pradesh, presented in resource information, social mobilization, and the previous chapter. With a total outreach close to incentives to facilitate change. However, the 1 million farmers and early results showing hundreds apparent simplicity of this prescription is deceptive, of communities beginning to align their water use given the fact that there are very few examples of with groundwater availability, this initiative may be programs or projects anywhere in the world that the first example globally of success at this scale have succeeded at scale in achieving sustainable in groundwater management through demand groundwater management on a systematic basis, reduction by communities. Therefore a promising especially through demand-side management with model for community-based groundwater a large number of users. There has, therefore, been management is available for hard-rock aquifers and a notable lack of proven models for community- could be the basis for replication and scaling up. This based groundwater management, which is the and other community initiatives undergoing pilot- main reason why governments have so far not level implementation are also beginning to define attempted to implement and invest in community- the key requirements of designing community- based initiatives, even in areas facing serious based groundwater management programs: groundwater crisis. 1. Community-based groundwater This report begins to address this gap. The potential management should not require sacrifice. of community-led initiatives is illustrated through a Demand management will not be successful detailed assessment of an innovative community- unless farmers are provided with cropping based groundwater management project under and irrigation options that reduce risk and Pragmatic Approaches for Managing Overexploited Aquifers in India 85 increase profits. At the same time, providing 3. Community-based groundwater these options to farmers without generating management needs government support. awareness about the status of local Community groundwater management groundwater resources will also be ineffective. needs capacity building and significant Low agricultural productivity in large parts of hand holding in its early years. Given the India is an opportunity in disguise, because current widespread need for groundwater the baseline of relatively inefficient water management and the increasing number of use and low crop yields means that there areas threatened by overexploitation, it is clear is ample scope for improving profits and that systemic nationwide action is needed, reducing water use at the same time, and that and government support for implementation sustainable groundwater management need will be crucial. not come at the price of sacrificing gain in agricultural incomes. 4. Pragmatic policies can enable community- based groundwater management. State 2. Participatory engagement should be governments can take policy action to the core focus of community-based facilitate formation of local groundwater groundwater management investments. user institutions and to ensure institutional Generating information, education, and coordination amongst different water- and social mobilization are the core elements of groundwater-related departments at the community-based groundwater management, aquifer level. and the resources dedicated to these activities should be commensurate with their 5. Community-based groundwater importance. management models need to be adaptable Village Community members showing the rain-gauge installed in a farmer's house in Vardhangarh (Satara, Maharashtra). Rainfall measurements are recorded daily. 86 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India to local settings. The approaches would need mobilized in line with this vision of conjunctive to be tailored specifically to the characteristics use, and the tasks would include of local aquifers, resource use, social dynamics, completing bank sealing and desedimentation and history of collective action. of major irrigation canals; Implementation action 3: Sector policy implementing and improving existing interventions and coordination operational codes for the distribution of canal water; Because of groundwater's ubiquitous use, policy measures focusing directly and explicitly on extending rural electrification and promoting groundwater are rarely sufficient for ensuring the construction and use of tubewells (if adequate management, and often prove to be necessary through subsidy) in high-water- less important than linkages with other sectoral table areas; policies and programs (public as well as private, long-term campaign to educate farmers on and at national, state, and municipal levels) that the benefits of managing conjunctive use have a large impact on groundwater. Pragmatic of groundwater and canal water through interventions on key issues such as agricultural microzone planning. power pricing and conjunctive use in agriculture and urban water supply are presented below. Implementation action 3.2: Integrating groundwater in urban water supply planning Implementation action 3.1: Promoting conjunctive use in agriculture The dynamics of groundwater use are significantly different between cities that are located on major In the irrigation canal commands of the Ganga and alluvial aquifers and those that are underlain by Indus river systems, heavy depletion of aquifers hard-rock aquifers, as described in Chapter 2. often exists in close proximity to problems of However, in both hydrogeological settings, it is waterlogging and salinization arising from canal common to find that there are no systematic studies leakages and excessive use of surface water in of urban groundwater. Water utilities are practically high-water-table areas. As explained in Chapter 2, blind to the role of groundwater in their existing more optimized conjunctive use (with improved supplies and the corresponding socioeconomic surface water distribution and more rational benefits, potential health risks, and management groundwater use) could increase the cropping needs. Data on resource availability and quality intensity from generally below 150 percent are often deficient, dispersed, or nonexistent, and to well over 200 percent in the Ganga plain technical and financial water supply planning at commands without compromising groundwater municipal or state levels is almost entirely restricted resource sustainability. To achieve this, the social to consideration of large new capital investments and economic obstacles facing implementation for the development of new surface water sources. would need to be overcome by pursuing a management action plan based on identifying This omission cannot continue if climate-robust different microplanning and management zones and cost-effective solutions to the major challenges in the command areas. Groundwater use within of urban water supply in most parts of India are to the microzones would need to be incorporated be found. With rising demand, scarce additional more fully and realistically into the planning and surface water supplies, and increasing frequency implementation of irrigation water management. and severity of drought predicted in many climate State financial investment, user incentives, and change scenarios, the role of urban groundwater management procedures would need to be resources and reserves will become all the more Pragmatic Approaches for Managing Overexploited Aquifers in India 87 critical in the future. Thus there is an urgent and owes to a combination of populist politics and general requirement to move from opportunistic the high transaction costs of metering millions of exploitation of groundwater resources to more wells in the countryside. However, over time, the systematic evaluation of the status of urban introduction of free or flat rate power has proved to groundwater use and the option it presents to be a one-way ratchet measure, fostering a culture of contribute to meeting future demand, together agrarian entitlement to free electricity and creating with the integration of this important resource into serious political costs associated with reverting to overall urban development plans. metering or introducing rational increases in tariffs. The burgeoning consumption of free or subsidized Specifically, for municipal agencies in cities on alluvial power in agriculture also poses a survival challenge aquifers, more robust urban water supply solutions for the state electricity boards, which are posting with sustainable groundwater use would involve unsustainable losses, putting considerable burden planned conjunctive use wherever exploitable on state budgets. Therefore, a resolution of the surface water resources are available; energy­groundwater nexus is important for ensuring the viability and sustainability of both development of more easily protected and groundwater-based agriculture and the electricity managed peripheral municipal well fields to sector in India. spread groundwater capture over a large area (through appropriate arrangements with the As discussed earlier, it is clear that the economically rural communities); rational solution of power metering coupled with integration of appropriate planning and a reintroduction of sensible tariffs is unviable in protection of all municipal groundwater the existing political environment. However, the sources into broader urban planning. impracticality of overt reform does not preclude the possibility of designing technical interventions For cities situated on hard-rock aquifers, extensive that are able to achieve the basic objectives of private water well construction and groundwater reform, but without having to present the decision dependency is likely to stay on as a coping strategy makers with suicidal political choices. Gujarat's to reduce dependence on the purchase of much experience in regulating agricultural power supply more expensive tanker-based water supply. This by installing separate electricity feeder systems for existing private access at moderate cost to in situ tubewells is an example of such an intervention, groundwater will inevitably be a key factor affecting providing 24-hour power supply for domestic, the cost recovery potential for major new urban institutional, and industrial use in villages, with the water supply schemes based on costly transport farmers getting eight hours of improved quality and treatment of supplies from distant surface and reliable power on an announced schedule that water sources. Municipal agencies would therefore can be designed to match the periods of moisture need to develop a more integrated vision of, and stress. It has resulted in significant improvements balanced policy between, utility infrastructure in quality of life and economic productivity in provision (both water supply and sanitation) and the villages and a de facto reduction in farm private self-supply. power subsidy, and has provided the state with a macrolevel on-off switch to control electricity Implementation action 3.3: Technical and political solutions consumption and groundwater use in the to agricultural power pricing agricultural sector, without any political difficulties. The advent of unmetered and cheap or free Punjab, now a state with fairly entrenched policies power to farmers in India in the 1970s and 1980s of free agricultural power supply, is also attempting 88 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India with success a similar approach for regulating alternative in the immediate term to the electricity and groundwater use in agriculture. enforcement of regulations for protecting The concept is replicable across different parts of groundwater resources, although systemic India, and could provide a much-needed interim reform in water supply would go a long way solution for addressing the energy­groundwater towards addressing the underlying causes of nexus in other states. the problem. In the long term, however, the low-level, high- In the case of overexploitation of major cost equilibrium of the energy groundwater nexus alluvial aquifers a two-pronged approach has no technical fix, and can be escaped only may be required, whereby a few of the by consciously following a political path out of largest users (whether commercial farms, the situation (Dubash 2007). This would involve industry, or urban water utilities) could be serious efforts at deepening the understanding given individual groundwater allocations, of farmer perspectives; negotiating through to be enforced by local authorities through statutory but socially acceptable multistakeholder dialogues that engage organized measures. farmer interest groups, utilities, and government representatives (instead of only policy elites and Implementing even this limited regulatory experts); transition steps to move out of the current agenda would require building the capacity and stalemate; and crafting an implementation strategy adjusting the role of central and state agencies that combines economic, administrative, technical, and providing them with the resources required, and institutional solutions, and that meets social including staffing and budgets, to deliver on and economic objectives in a politically acceptable the mandate of enforcing regulations. The manner. success of this command and control approach is, however, likely to be diluted if expanded Implementation action 4: Targeted regulation of to other overexploited aquifers. Regulation groundwater use would be particularly inappropriate in hard-rock Instruments for controlling abstraction of aquifers, where there is very limited potential for groundwater from designated aquifers can unsustainable groundwater mining and where include, among other measures, allocation of monitoring costs would be prohibitive, owing to permits, selective credit controls, restrictions the extremely large number of small individual on electricity connections, and restrictions on subsistence farmers. borehole locations and licensing. As discussed in Chapter 3, global experience suggests that Pragmatic menu of implementation regulation of groundwater abstraction is a actions for overexploited aquifers challenging undertaking. Given the large number The pragmatic implementation actions discussed of users of this highly decentralized resource, in the preceding sections need to be selected which has been developed almost entirely by and carefully tailored to the local contexts of private initiative, regulation will be of limited use in groundwater overexploitation. Based on the most of India. However, a selective command and typologies of overexploited aquifers presented in control approach would be needed in the limited Chapter 2, the combinations of actions that can number of critically endangered aquifers: be both effective and viable in different settings In the case of urban settings seriously of groundwater overexploitation in India are threatened by overexploitation, there is no summarized in Table 5. Pragmatic Approaches for Managing Overexploited Aquifers in India 89 Table 5.2 Recommended implementation actions for different settings of groundwater overexploitation in India General & Specific Hydro-Geological Resource Implementation Land Use Environment Use Actions Widespread 1. Enable and nurture community-based groundwater management, weathered hard-rock strongly complemented by availability of demand management (basalt or granite) interventions aquifers with shallow, 2. Encourage artificial groundwater recharge low-storage patchy 3. Explore technical interventions (e.g. separate agriculture electricity groundwater bodies feeders) to indirectly control energy costs and groundwater pumping Hard-rock terrains Occasional 1. Enable and nurture community-based groundwater management, in peninsular but important strongly complemented by availability of demand management India groundwater bodies in interventions coastal or graben fill 2. Encourage artificial groundwater recharge sedimentary aquifers 3. Explore conjunctive use management 4. Explore technical interventions (e.g. separate agriculture electricity feeders) to indirectly control energy costs and groundwater pumping 5. Maintain regulation in most critical aquifers Rural Alluvial aquifers, in 1. Major emphasis on microzone-based conjunctive use management plains largely within (in canal head: seal canal breaches, groundwater pumping, sodic/ major irrigation canal saline land reclamation; in tail end: promotion of water-efficient high- commands with value crops) naturally shallow 2. Explore technical interventions (e.g. separate agriculture electricity water table feeders) to indirectly control energy costs and groundwater pumping Major alluvial 3. Maintain regulation in most critical groundwater blocks formations Alluvial aquifers in the 1. Major emphasis on microzone-based conjunctive use management of rural Indo- older and elevated (in canal head: seal canal breaches, groundwater pumping, sodic/ Gangetic Plains alluvial plains, with saline land reclamation; in tail end: promotion of water-efficient high- more limited irrigation value crops) canals and deeper 2. Support technical interventions for demand-side management in water table high-water-use crops 3. Explore technical interventions (e.g. separate agriculture electricity feeders) to indirectly control energy costs and groundwater pumping 4. Maintain regulation in most critical groundwater blocks Weathered hard-rock 1. Assess the extent of prevalent private self-supply through aquifers with shallow, groundwater and account for it in planning and costing of new water low-storage patchy supply augmentation schemes groundwater bodies 2. Promotion of urban demand-side management 3. Promotion of household rainwater harvesting measures Urban Urban 4. Maintain regulation in most critical groundwater blocks environment Major alluvial aquifers 1. Plan conjunctive use where exploitable surface water supplies are in alluvial plains available 2. Spread groundwater capture over a large area by developing easily manageable and protected peripheral well fields 3. Integrate groundwater development and management into overall urban planning 90 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Epilogue: Summing up in situations characterized by a formalized water economy and a comparatively small number of Groundwater is now arguably the most critical users. water resource of India. In a vast majority of settings in urban and rural India, it underpins agricultural While these instruments may be adapted for some production, livelihoods depending on the rural specific situations (for example regulation in urban agrarian economy, and urban and rural water environments or groundwater allocations for supplies. The resource development has been organized user groups), the transaction costs of explosive over the last four decades. This growth in implementing them for millions of wells and users groundwater use has been driven not only by its make them impractical for state enforcement in superior virtues of widespread access and control most of the groundwater settings in India. over the quality and timing of supply, but has also resulted from the mass exit of users in response to This absence of appropriate and credible models the poor quality of public surface water supplies. of groundwater management is one reason why The explosive growth in groundwater use has also state action has been limited to rather ineffective been furtive in its nature, as a result of millions attempts at regulating groundwater use in of private well drillings unfettered by any direct critically threatened areas. Some of the policy law or management framework. As aquifers in an measures needed for addressing the problem increasingly large number of areas are threatened (such as removing the perverse incentives for by overexploitation, India faces a unique challenge groundwater pumping inherent in the provision in managing its groundwater use, which: of cheap agricultural power) are highly unpopular and therefore unviable in the current political in its aggregate quantum ranks as the highest environment. Between these "not appropriate in the world; for India" prescriptions and "sensible but infeasible" recommendations, the groundwater is being pumped by a similarly unrivaled high overexploitation crisis has continued to grow number of groundwater users spread across deeper in India. large tracts of the country; The premise and mandate of the World Bank's has developed without much consideration of study and technical assistance initiative on the actual groundwater potential of aquifers; groundwater management was to accept as given has been only marginally governed, if at all, the political economy and identify pragmatic and is a subject of welfare as well as populist options for groundwater management that politics. can be implemented largely within the existing institutional framework. The key emphasis was on While the international experience in groundwater praxis, namely the translation of ideas into plans management provides helpful insights into what for management action. The activities under this may or may not work in the particular settings initiative were therefore deliberately structured of groundwater overexploitation in India, there to draw lessons from the analytical work as well is a lack of groundwater management models as from the technical assistance provided to that would be suitable for these settings. The implementation of groundwater management approaches based on state-enforced regulation, interventions in different states of India. pricing, and property rights systems have a mixed record of success at best, and have performed well Based on these analytical findings and lessons from only in authoritarian governance environments or the ground, a menu of pragmatic management Pragmatic Approaches for Managing Overexploited Aquifers in India 91 interventions has been developed for the main The menu is practical, and unlike a number of settings of groundwater overexploitation in classical recommendations, does not propose India: options that appear to be political suicide to the decision makers. The recommendations comprise specific and practical actions to start managing The confidence in the recommended actions groundwater here and now, and also comes from extensive consultations with and include innovative technical measures support from a broad range of stakeholders (such as separating tubewell power feeder on both the technical and political economy systems to exercise control on electricity aspects of implementation. and groundwater use in agriculture, and groundwater recharge through existing dug Together, the proposed set of interventions sets wells to make it more cost-effective) that the basis for changing the game on groundwater can sidestep political difficulties or enhance management in India, from one that presently consists of either inaction or waiting for champions who can potential results. push through unpopular reform interventions, to The menu is not uniformly rich while the one where diligent implementation of interventions significant demand management results within the current framework can start producing achieved by an innovative community- immediate management results on the ground. For based groundwater management initiative India today, groundwater is too critical a resource in Andhra Pradesh point to a viable model to continue to be left unmanaged, and it is hoped for community management in hard-rock that the findings of this report can inspire an action areas of India, no similar solutions can be agenda for moving swiftly to protect the vital but recommended for the alluvial aquifers. ever-declining aquifers of the country. Sahebrao Nikam of Pandherwadi shows his "water account passbook", containing the details of the groundwater budget for the local aquifer (Satara, Maharashtra). 92 Deep Wells anD pruDence: Towards Pragmatic Action for Addressing Groundwater Overexploitation in India Glossary alluvial aquifer: Water storage system in graben fill sedimentary aquifer: An aquifer based unconsolidated geological materials (sand, gravel, in the sediment that is deposited by a river flowing cobbles, and thin beds of silty clay) deposited by a in the graben. stream and retaining a hydraulic connection with the depositing stream. hard-rock aquifer: Water storage system in the crystalline basement complex and metamorphic cropping intensity: Number of croppings on a rocks typical of peninsular India, including those given piece of agricultural land per year. Double areas underlain by ancient volcanic rocks, such as cropping occurs when two crops are planted the basalts of western India (Deccan Traps). sequentially with no overlap in the growth cycle. headwater zone: Upper reaches of canal system. kharif: The agricultural season that commences evapotranspiration: The process by which water with the onset of the monsoon (June/July) and is transferred to the atmosphere through both continues until October; also referred to as the transpiration from plants and evaporation from soil "monsoon crop" or "autumn harvest crop". and plant surfaces. Beneficial evapotranspiration is evapotranspiration of moisture that has nonrecoverable fraction of irrigation water: already been utilized by the crop; nonbeneficial That part of irrigation water that seeps into water evapotranspiration is evapotranspiration of storage systems from which it cannot be recovered, moisture that has not contributed to crop for example saline water bodies. production (for example from soil, weeds, or surface water). rabi: The agricultural season spanning approximately the period from October to March/April; also called graben: A depressed segment of the earth's crust the "winter crop" or "spring harvest crop". that has slid downward between two faults and is bounded by them. tailwater zone: Lower reaches of canal system. Glossary 93 References Agarwal, A., and S. Narain.1997. 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