Water Resources Management Challenges in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

As per the assessment of the dynamic ground water resource in Gujarat the utilsable ground water resources have been assessed as 24905 MCM, after providing for natural discharge (March 2021). The annual ground water draft is 13296 MCM. The Stage of ground water development works out to be about 53%. However, this is not uniform across the state. The stage of development is exceedingly high in North Gujarat and Kachchh regions. Highly intensive development of ground water in these areas has resulted in over - exploitation leading to the decline of ground water levels, deterioration in the ground water quality and sea water intrusion in the coastal areas. The paper presents existing scenario of various supply and demand side interventions implemented in the state with their impact. Recommendations for various interventions necessary for sustainable ground water management have been made with particular emphasis on use of scientific inputs from the supply as well as demand side interventions to the community participation in planning, implementing and monitoring.

The Ground Water Resources play an important role in agro-economy of the Chhattisgarh State being heavily dependent on rain?fed agriculture. The Ground water resources are controlled by normal monsoon rainfall of 1201 mm with four aquifer systems, viz a) Sandstone aquifers, b) Limestone aquifers, c) Crystalline aquifers comprising granites, gneisses schists, ultrabasics and basalts of Archean, Proterozoic and Cenozoic age respectively forming discontinuous, unconfined and semi-confined aquifers, and d). Alluvial aquifers comprising alluvium, clays, silts, laterites etc. forming thin and extensive unconfined aquifers in several isolated patches and near major river courses. These are unconsolidated formations of Quaternary age. During pre-monsoon period in the 70% area of the state groundwater level remains under 5 to 10m, 21% under 10 ? 20 m and less than 1% under more than 20 mbgl. In the Post-monsoon period, 71% area shows the groundwater level in the range of 2 to 5 m, 24% area, 5 to 10m and 2% more than 10 m bgl. In general, 23% wells show rise in the range of 0-2m, 35 % 2-4 m and 42%, > 4 m in response to rainfall. Ground water quality is bicarbonate type and suitable for all purposes. Isolated patches of Arsenic, Sulphate, Fluoride and NO3 contamination have also been reported. Ground water meets 84.5 % and 14.5 % of total irrigation and drinking water requirements respectively. The annual ground water recharge has been estimated as 11,579 MCM. The existing ground water extraction for all uses is 4691MCM. Out of 146 blocks, 41 blocks have Stage of Ground Water Extraction < 30 %, 46 blocks, between 30 to 50%, 35 blocks within 50 and 70 % and 24 blocks have > 70%. The groundwater utilization over the years has increased drastically from 5.11 % in 1990 to 44.37% in the year 2017.The immediate attention is needed on (a) Creation of additional Irrigation potential, (b) Supply of contaminant free water through alternate source, (c) Promotion of rainwater harvesting and sartificial recharge with community participation,. (d) Regulation of overuse of ground water and (e) Sensitizing Farmers through incentivizing water efficient irrigation techniques.

India is a water stressed country. Regionwise scenario is different but in general surface water resources are not sufficient to fulfil the need of the country. Available sites for water storage are limited and are located in reach regions which makes it difficult to rationally distribute the available surplus water resources to the deprived regions. This compels the extraction of groundwater in the deprived regions. Even in the command areas of the dams the tail enders do not get water and hence they have to depend on groundwater. Cropping pattern has been continuously changing due to market variations and hence the regions which are not expected to grow water-intensive crops have started growing them by meeting the water demand from precious groundwater. Objective of agriculture has been changed from food production to profit-making. Urbanization and Industrialization have furthered the dependence on groundwater. The erratic rainfall sometime is the cause of depending on groundwater. In all, the reasons for dependence on groundwater are many and the overall dependence on groundwater has been at present between 50 % to 90 % in different parts of India. For last so many years that the dependence on groundwater has been on increase which has posed a serious threat of quantity and quality of water almost in the entire country and the present model of economy, agriculture and development as a whole has become a subject of reconsideration on the ground of sustainability and environmental change. The root cause of this situation is the unsustainable ways of resource management we have adopted. Gujarat is one of the most suffering states in water scarcity because of all the aforesaid factors. The objective of the paper is to discuss the issues and the probable solutions such that that the future course could be corrective and is approached early to save the future of the state and the entire country.

Madhya Pradesh is endowed with sufficient surface water. This water is available to the state thorough perennial rivers Narmada, Son, Tapti, Chambal, and Wainganga. These rivers also have numerous perennial tributaries. The total surface water availability in the Chambal, Betawa, Ken catchment is 45 cubic km; 29.29 cubic km in the Son catchment; 52.43 cubic km in the Mahanadi river catchment; 40.83 cubic km in the Narmada catchment and 4.53 cubic km in Wainganga and Pench catchment. Madhya Pradesh received erratic precipitation during the last five years . So it does not have sufficient surface water. The need is for proper management of available surface water resources including systematic monitoring and water conservation techniques. Involvement of Panchayats and other stakeholders is essential to augment surface water bodies through tanks and other rainwater impounding structures. It is time that the stake holders should be aware of the availability of resources for future use, and benefits of conjunctive use of surface and groundwater.