Groundwater

Featured Articles
October 17, 2022 While informal groundwater markets cater significantly to the needs of smallholder farmers in India, they continue to be unacknowledged and understudied.
Groundwater, a finite resource (Image Source: TV Manoj via Wikimedia Commons)
July 5, 2022 Studies reveal that children are the most vulnerable to the health risks associated with groundwater contamination due to nitrate and fluoride, highlighting the need for urgent remedial measures.
POisoned waters, dangerous outcomes (Image Source: India Water Portal)
April 26, 2022 The water stewardship initiative by WOTR that developed a tool to visualise aquifers has not only helped farmers understand groundwater as a shared resource, but also led to a behavioural change among water users and helped implement groundwater laws and policies.
Groundwater, a fast disappearing resource (Image Source: India Water Portal)
February 13, 2022 A study provides new evidence that drinking water contaminated with arsenic can lead to still births, recurrent pregnancy loss and infertility among women.
A well in Rajasthan (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos)
August 29, 2021 A study shows that high arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bihar is linked with increase in cancer cases. Districts located near the Himalayan river basins have more people with cancer.
Drinking water in Bihar, linked to cancer (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos)
August 26, 2021 This study from Rajasthan found that anthropogenic factors led to nitrate contamination of groundwater. High nitrate levels in drinking water posed major health risks to children.
A well in Rajasthan (Image Source: IWP Flickr photos)
4 billion global population affected by severe water scarcity: NASA
News this week Posted on 23 Feb, 2016 12:16 PM

Groundwater levels are reducing all over the world: NASA analysis

A tubewell in Rajasthan (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
Saved by tanks: The story of Puducherry’s Bahour commune
While the monster floods of 2015 mercilessly gobbled up villages along the coast of Tamil Nadu, settlements in neighbouring Puducherry managed to escape the fury. Miracle, you say? Posted on 16 Feb, 2016 10:13 AM

The East Coast of India is very much unlike its western counterpart both in terms of physiography and climatology.

The Manapet tank in Bahour has an ayacut of around 110 acres, most of which is now urbanised (Image: Seetha Gopalakrishnan, IWP)
Pumping up hopes the solar way
What will it take for the Haryana government to switch 7 lakh groundwater pumps to solar powered options so it can lower its energy footprint and contain losses in the energy sector? Posted on 28 Jan, 2016 03:29 PM

Haryana's agriculture sector uses seven lakh tubewells, most of which are connected to the grid as the state has a policy of providing highly subsidised electricity to farmers costing Rs. 6200 crore a year. As a result, groundwater exploitation is rampant.

Better incentives needs to be provided to farmers to use solar pumps for tubewells in Haryana
UP Coca Cola plant in trouble again
News this week Posted on 26 Jan, 2016 02:03 PM

CPCB finds Coca Cola plant in Hapur pumping toxic water into a pond

Coca Cola bottling plant (Source: S. Subramanium via Hindu)
Alarm bells ring for Delhi’s groundwater
The city's old wells and baodis are running dry, and the Yamuna is getting more polluted by the day. Where is Delhi's water going to come from when groundwater levels are also dropping? Posted on 25 Jan, 2016 01:19 PM

Delhi, home to 16.75 million people, is in the grip of a major water crisis. Statistics by the Delhi Jal Board for the year 2011 suggest that the water deficit stands at about 250 million gallons per day with the supply being 830 million gallons per day.

Residents say they are forced to flout the groundwater extraction norms with illegal groundwater pumps in Narela in North-west Delhi due to insufficient and poor quality of water supplied.
Can recurring droughts in Maharashtra be offset by participatory groundwater management (PGWM)?
Three different methods using PGWM that resulted in better water management demonstrate that hydrogeology can become a catalyst for villages to come together to plan and achieve water security. Posted on 20 Jan, 2016 09:02 AM

Maharashtra is the fourth state following Karnataka, Chattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh to seek out relief from the Union government thanks to more than 15,000 of its villages across Marathwada and parts of Western Maharashtra reeling under drought in 2015 [1].

The role of PGWM to deal with droughts in Maharashtra (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Informal water markets in Chennai
A significant number of the urban poor purchase water from tankers and those that deliver water in plastic cans, bottles, sachets, etc, incurring a sizeable monthly expenditure on water purchases. Posted on 17 Jan, 2016 09:43 PM

In India, managing the current demand and planning for future water demand in urban areas is becoming a major challenge for urban water supply authorities. According to current figures by the World Health Organisation, 10% in urban areas in India still do not have access to improved water supply.

Water scarcity and informal water markets in urban India (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
NITI Ayog allocates Rs 1000 crore for groundwater contaminated zones
Policy matters this week Posted on 11 Jan, 2016 09:48 PM

Government to install community water purification plants in water toxic zones

A hand pump in Madhya Pradesh (Source: IWP Flickr Photos)
Right information and collective strength of people triumph!
The film titled 'A Hand Pump' tells the story of the villagers of Padapadar, Odisha and their struggle to finally get their right to safe drinking water. Posted on 04 Jan, 2016 08:25 PM

"More than eight villagers in Padapadar have died due to water-borne diseases such as typhoid, diarrhoea, jaundice, etc.

A hand-pump installed at Padapadar village
The Last Builder of Naulas in Chatola, Nainital
Constructing naulas, the small structures that house springs in Uttarakhand, requires an intimate knowledge of many sciences. One of the last practitioners of this dying craft tells his story. Posted on 03 Jan, 2016 05:57 PM

No temple is as venerated in Uttarakhand as the little unassuming naulas. These small hut-like structures dot the mountains and hold within them a great treasure--water. Usually made of stone masonry with pyramid-like slate roofs, every naula respresents within it a residing spirit which can range from a simple stone piece to an ornately carved statue.

Ratan Singh Bisht is one of the few people today who constructs naulas
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