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)
Will Andhra Pradesh’s free bore well scheme deplete groundwater?
Under the YSR Jalakala scheme, the Andhra Pradesh government will dig free bore wells to provide small and marginal farmers access to water. Posted on 10 Apr, 2021 09:40 AM

Government policies usually have multiple objectives such as reducing poverty and inequality, contributing to development, and so on. Most of these policies are influenced by a host of socio-economic factors, the internal political environment, and best practices, among others.

Groundwater depletion, a growing problem in India (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Drinking water access to all in Bihar: Reach, benefits and challenges
Significantly reduced the daily drudgery of women in rural areas Posted on 06 Apr, 2021 01:17 PM

The problem of drinking water in India is becoming more acute by the day, as one can see people queuing up at wells, water tankers, and common water points during summers in mos

The water requirement for the scheme is being fulfilled through borings, submersible pumps, and distribution pipelines implemented by the Department of Panchayati Raj, Government of Bihar. (Image: Sehgal Foundation)
Over two crore children in India experiencing extremely high water vulnerability: UNICEF
News this week Posted on 01 Apr, 2021 11:00 AM

UNICEF’s analysis reveals over two crore children in India facing extremely high water vulnerability

Girl fetching water from handpump (Source: Flickr photos via IWP)
Water footprint of food and cooking fuel
Rice and wheat have large water footprints in rural India Posted on 26 Mar, 2021 02:33 PM

Water is a basic resource for food and fuelwood production. In general, people in rural areas of India consume carbohydrate-rich staples with small amounts of animal foods. They mostly depend upon fuelwood for cooking.

Madhya Pradesh has the largest blue water footprint for food (334 m3/cap/year) and the blue water footprint from wheat contributes 87%. (Image: Pixabay)
Efforts towards skilling local communities in water management
Enhancing community based water resource management Posted on 23 Mar, 2021 12:14 PM

Samerth has been working since 2000 on providing safe water to the marginalised communities in the remote areas of Rapar and Bhachau blocks of Kutch district in Gujarat.

Women are involved in the process of developing the water budget from a gender lens. (Image: Samerth)
Enhancing water security through responsible tourism
While tourism is on the threshold of expanding in India, water scarcity and quality issues could hinder progress. What could be the way out? Posted on 18 Mar, 2021 01:24 PM

Manisha Shah, Arghyam, Bangalore highlights the issues related to water scarcity and quality in the tourist destinations in India and shares the work of the ForWater collaborative.

Water tankers cater to the needs of populations in tourist destinations in India (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Meandering waterways: the interconnectedness of people’s action on water availability
Water demand and availability cannot be viewed in isolation. It is rather an outcome of the whole set of actions that people undertake to improve their lives and enhance their livelihoods. Posted on 09 Mar, 2021 01:21 PM

“Everything is connected”. I watched a docuseries named “Connected: the hidden science of everything” where a journalist named Latif Nasser investigates how we and the universe are connected. After watching this docuseries, I thought about it and tried gathering pieces of evidence regarding this connectivity around me over the past one year.

Improving water availability in Mogras. Image used for representation only (Image Source: WOTR)
Study detects high levels of arsenic in cooked rice in Bihar
Need to remove arsenic from the food chain and not just drinking water in endemic areas Posted on 03 Mar, 2021 08:01 AM

Extensive evidence of elevated arsenic in the food chain, mainly rice, wheat and vegetables exists.

Median excess lifetime cancer risk of 2 per 10,000 from food arsenic exposure in Bihar. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
Managing groundwater demand: the way forward
Substituting groundwater irrigation by canal irrigation will not help in maintaining the current levels of food production in India. Managing groundwater demand will, finds a study. Posted on 02 Mar, 2021 07:25 AM

Groundwater reserves are depleting at rapid rates in India, which is one of the world’s largest consumer of groundwater with it  providing 60 percent of the irrigation needs of the country.

Groundwater, a valuable resource! (Image Source: India Water Portal)
Digital tool to monitor groundwater
Women in Rajasthan use a groundwater monitoring tool to record water levels and promote water literacy Posted on 28 Feb, 2021 09:41 AM

According to a 2006 report by the Inter-Agency Task Force, titled ‘Gender, Water and Sanitation’

Women use an open source groundwater monitoring tool that enables collection of water level data of wells and its collation on a web platform for easy access by all. (Image: FES)
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