As summer sets in, India says 33% of its groundwater undrinkable

New Delhi – As India braces for the torrid summer heat for the next 6-8 months, with daytime temperatures already touching 40 deg.C in parts of the eastern Indian state of Orissa, officials have admitted that the crucial groundwater situation in more than a third of the country is not fit for drinking.

The government has admitted in parliament that iron levels in groundwater are higher than those prescribed in 254 districts while fluoride levels have breached the safe level in 224 districts.

The alarming situation could bring trouble for the government, which has promised to provide drinking water to all habitations by 2012 under the United Nations millennium development goals.

While ground water is not the only source of drinking water that government utilises, it is one of the key supplies and the dependence on ground water has been increasing over years.

The government, in its reply, said salinity had risen beyond tolerance levels in 162 districts while arsenic levels were found higher than permissible limits in 34 districts. India has over 600 administrative districts.

States like Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat seemed to be worst affected. Twenty-one of the 26 districts of Gujarat were found to have dangerous salinity levels and 18 had breached safe fluoride levels.

The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) found 21 of 31 districts in the southern state of Karnataka to be contaminated with iron and 20 districts with higher levels of fluoride.

In the case of Rajasthan, ground water in 27 districts was found to be too saline, 30 districts had higher levels of fluoride and 28 suffered from iron contamination.

The national capital of New Delhi does not fare any better, with five of its nine districts showing fluoride contamination and two showing salinity. Pockets of all the nine districts had high iron content.

The government admission, comes soon after the World Bank said that if the current trends of acute groundwater use continue, 60% of all acquifers in India could run dry in 20 years or will be in a critical condition..

It has urged priority action through higher investment in management of groundwater resources to reduce over exploitation, especially in view of the fact that there is major dependence by several sectors on the resources countrywide.

Groundwater resources are being depleted at an alarming rate. Today, 29% of groundwater blocks are semi-critical, critical, or overexploited, and the situation is deteriorating rapidly.

By 2025, an estimated 60% of India's groundwater blocks will be in a critical condition. Climate change will further strain groundwater resources. Almost 54% of the groundwater blocks in Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu fall in these categories.

Today, out of total 5,723 groundwater blocks in the country, 1,615 are classified as semi-critical, critical or over-exploited, and regulatory directives have been issued by the Central Ground Water Authority for 108 blocks.

India is the largest user of groundwater in the world, with an estimated use of 230 cubic kilometres of groundwater every year—more than a quarter of the global total.



In fact, groundwater use has been steadily increasing in India over the last 4-5 decades. Today, groundwater supports approximately 60% of irrigated agriculture and more than 80% of rural and urban water supplies.

"Today, groundwater supports approximately 60 percent of irrigated agriculture and more than 80 percent of rural and urban water supplies (in India)," said the World Bank report.

Around 29 percent of groundwater blocks, are semi-critical, critical or overexploited, and the situation is deteriorating rapidly. Climate change will further strain groundwater resources, the statement quoted the report as having said.

While urban centres in the country deploy water treatment systems before supplying water to homes, the costs of cleaning up as well as chances of contamination remain

Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/313727,as-summer-sets-in-india-says-33-of-its-groundwater-undrinkable.html#ixzz0i5H15Dsb

Tomorrow's groundwater, today's challenge
Agriculture researcher Betty Klepper explains water in the Umatilla River Basin

By BETTY KLEPPER Umatilla County Critical Groundwater Taskforce

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third in a series of biweekly articles by members of the Umatilla County Critical Groundwater Taskforce about the work the group has been doing.

Have you ever looked at the water in the Umatilla River and thanked your lucky stars? You probably couldn't make a living here if we did not have this essential resource. Without the waters of the Umatilla River Basin, our region would be much less developed and prosperous than it is today.

The Umatilla River flows from high in the Blue Mountains to the Columbia River and drains an area of nearly 2,500 square miles. This drainage area is the Umatilla River Basin. Within the basin, terrestrial and aquatic wildlife, native and cultivated plants, and humans and their domesticated animals all depend on the precipitation that falls inside the basin boundaries for their water.

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Point to Non-point Trades Stir Debate about VA and PA Programs

The effects of some nutrient reductions efforts in the Chesapeake Bay area today may not be realized for years due to the varied timeframes it takes nutrients to pass through slow-moving groundwater conduits. Some nutrients released by non-point sources can reach streams in a matter of weeks or months. However, the USGS estimates that it takes, on average, a decade before half of the nitrogen that sinks into groundwater seeps into a stream, and more time for the other half. This 'groundwater lag' raises concerns as some states look at nutrient trading regimes that would allow point to non-point trades, rather than solely point-to-point trades. The Pennsylvania and Virginia trading programs, recently created programs that allow point-to-non-point source trades. Both programs use the Watershed Model, a model for developing reduction strategies to meet annual caps, though the model doesn't directly account for the groundwater lag.

– View the Bay Journal article

Hill Country seeking to avoid being left high and dry

Web Posted: 08/02/2007 10:49 PM CDT

Zeke MacCormack
Express-News BOERNE — Water conservation, rainwater capture and brush removal can help keep faucets flowing in Hill Country areas of fast growth, declining aquifers and limited surface water supplies.

Calls for regional coordination on those initiatives were aired this week at a water forum here, along with a warning that despite recent heavy rains, the Trinity Aquifer level barely has rebounded in places.

Tommy Mathews, chairman of the local water board, said combined pumping from wells across Kendall County already might exceed the annual draw of 4,840 acre-feet of water considered "sustainable" by the Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District.

The district is expected to stop issuing new permits for commercial pumpers once that limit is hit, although officials say permits likely will be available for domestic and livestock uses. An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons.

A study is under way to determine the exact pumping volume in the county, where the population has grown 33 percent to about 32,000 — and an average of nearly 300 residential well permits per year have been issued — since 2000.

The groundwater supply has been supplemented by water piped in from Canyon Lake by the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority, but GBRA General Manager Bill West said at Wednesday's forum that all of the available water in the pipeline is spoken for.

Among the GBRA customers is the city of Boerne, whose 10,000 residents enjoy a level of certainty about future water sources that's envied by rural neighbors, including some who've seen their wells dry up in recent droughts.

Combined with Boerne's own reservoir and its nine wells, there's enough water to serve 25,000 residents, City Manager Ron Bowman said.

The city's water can be stretched if conservation measures are stepped up and the city pursues plans to pump treated wastewater back into Boerne Lake for reuse as drinking water.

Rainwater capture programs were in the spotlight when the water forum was launched last year by the Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce. This year, there was increased talk about brush control.

Some 65,000 acres have been cleared of mesquite and ash juniper (better known to Texans as "cedar") in the Pedernales River basin since 2002.

The Legislature this year allocated $3.6 million to the Texas State Water and Soil Conservation Board for brush control programs, said Tuffy Wood, program specialist for the agency.

The project started in San Angelo in 1999 and has expanded to seven river watersheds, he said.

Wood estimated nearly half of all rainfall never reaches the soil in areas thick with ash juniper because it's caught in the canopy and absorbed in the mulch.

He said the grant program covers 70 percent of brush-clearing costs — an estimated $180 an acre in the Pedernales basin areas of Gillespie, Blanco and Hays counties — with the balance paid by landowners.

"In the past there has not been any money for the Guadalupe basin, but that is a project we are looking at heavily now," Wood said Thursday. "I'm assuming they will get some."

Cow Creek board member John Kight, a former Kendall County commissioner, said a coordinated brush-clearing program is needed here.

He predicted clearing 100,000 acres of brush in Kendall County could translate into 130,000 more acre-feet of rainwater annually for aquifers, rivers and streams.

"We're going to run out of water if we don't do something to help ourselves," Kight said.