The peer-reviewed study, called ‘Assessment of future trends and spatial orientation of groundwater resources as an essential climate variable in the Ganga basin” and published Groundwater for Sustainable Development (Elsevier) on 16 May, observed that the rate of seasonal groundwater loss in the Ganga basin has been high because of groundwater overexploitation, the shifting pattern of climate and unsustainable urban planning. The Ganga basin is one of the most densely populated river basins in the world.
As a result, cities such as Delhi-NCR, Jaipur, Faridabad, Lucknow, Panipat, Agra, Varanasi, Meerut, Sagar, Gwalior, Patna, Rewa, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Haridwar, and Chatra have exhibited a very high depletion rate, which could impact the socio-economic activities and lifestyle of the people, the study said. “The percentage of the Ganga basin showing the groundwater drought propagation regions for pre-monsoon, monsoon, and post-monsoon are found as 74.86 percent, 74.17 percent, and 78.52 percent, respectively. The severity of groundwater drought increased 22 times during pre-monsoon,” it said.
Speaking to the media, Abhishek Kumar Rai from Centre for Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences (CORAL) — one of the supervisors of the study — said preventive measures need to be taken to not only recharge ground water levels but also prevent such an eventuality in the future. “In the western part of the basin, groundwater depletion can impact society and agriculture. It is happening in the Eastern part (of Ganga basin) as well due to overexploitation of groundwater. There is an urgent need to stop this depletion by groundwater recharge and other measures,” said Rai.
The recent water crisis in Bangalore, where more than half of its borewells had dried up, should come as a warning for the government, he said. “Groundwater resources are not unlimited. If we do not take care of this properly, it may become a severe problem in future. We have seen this recently in New Delhi and Bengaluru.”
According to Mohd Sayeed Ul Hasan, an assistant professor at the department of civil engineering at West Bengal’s Aliah University who was also part of the study, it took their team of 6-7 researchers nearly two years to conduct the study. Researchers analysed data available on ground water from 1996 to 2016.
“This data was analysed and geo-processed for the seasonal (pre-monsoon, monsoon, post-monsoon) trend of groundwater depth, fluctuation, and drought in the Ganga basin. The factors behind this depletion of groundwater level are climate change, overexploitation of groundwater and anthropogenic activities such as unsustainable ways of urban planning,” he said.
Recharging borewells, rainwater harvesting and careful use of groundwater are some measures that researchers say could help reverse the situation.
“Most of the rain that happens goes to the rivers and then the ocean. As the monsoon is setting in, we can go for rainwater harvesting, especially in cities where multi-storey buildings take a lot of groundwater from the surface,” Rai said.
According to Sayeed, the findings are beneficial to Indian government agencies and policy-makers to help accomplish Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), both adopted in 2015.
“The results also support national policy makers for the Viksit Bharat 2047 initiative, and are helpful for early career researchers,” he said
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