Hello there! Today's article talks about the Ground water depletion in India, Its causes and ways we can improve the situation. I hope you find it informative and interesting :)

The importance of groundwater for the existence of the human society cannot be undermined. Groundwater is the major source of drinking water in both urban as well as rural India. Besides, it also serves as a major source of water for the agricultural and the industrial sector in the country.

 The ever increasing demand for water has tremendously increased over the years and this has led to acute water scarcity in many parts of the world. Sadly, this situation is aggravated by the problem of contamination and water pollution. India is currently facing a freshwater crisis mainly due to improper management of water resources and also environmental degradation, which has prevented millions of Indians access to safe water supply.

Groundwater crisis is the result of human actions. During the past two decades, the water level in has been falling rapidly due to an increase in extraction and the resource's mismanagement. The number of wells drilled for irrigation of both cash crops and food crops and has indiscriminately increased. India's rapidly rising population is also a major cause of water depletion and changing lifestyles has added to the problem and increased it manifold. The water requirement for the industry over the years has also substantially increased. The quality of groundwater has worsened and is continuously getting severely affected because of the widespread and uncontrolled pollution of surface water. Besides, the discharge of untreated waste water through bores and unscientific disposal of wastes also lead to the contamination of groundwater, thereby reducing the quality of fresh water resources.

Causes of groundwater depletion and contamination in India

What we must realize is that groundwater is undoubtedly an integral part of the environment, and hence cannot be looked upon in isolation. Lack of adequate attention on water conservation, lack of research to increase efficiency in groundwater recharge, water use, water re-use, and ecosystem sustainability are major causes of the current situation. An uncontrolled utilization of the bore well technology has led to the extraction of groundwater at such alarming rates that often natural recharge is insufficient. The causes of low water availability in many regions are also thought to be directly linked to the reducing forest cover and soil degradation in the affected areas.

What I think can be and should be done:

It is important for all of us to realize that groundwater is not a resource that should be utilized simply because it is available in abundant quantities (It's not abundant anymore). Anything done in excess has a negative impact and so does the over exploitation of the water table.

Other than legislation and occasional checks to monitor the quality of groundwater, care must also be taken to conserve groundwater. We in particular and the society at large itself has a very important role to play. There has been awareness among the common people on the need to conserve our water resources. Water use has to be well integrated with water regeneration.

The Water Act (Prevention and Control)  was passed by the Government in the year 1974, and by 1990 all the states had adopted the act. In 1986, the Environment Protection Act was also passed by the Parliament. Under both these acts, the states and the central government collaborated and developed environmental norms for air emissions and waste water discharge for different types of sources but it lacked policies to restore our Ground water table. An amendment would help improve the current situation.

Please feel free to share your views :)