Shallow Aquifers

This presentation by ACWADAM deals with springs, their characteristics and types. Springs are indicated by locations or points on the ground surface, where water from beneath the ground emerges on to the surface. A common example is of an overflowing unconfined aquifer.

Some of the characteristics of springs are:

• Discharge from spring may be constant or variable.
• Springs can be perennial or seasonal.
• Discharge from a spring may vary between from a trickle to about 100 cum per second.
• Difficulty in access.
• Variation in discharge.
• Temperature of spring water may vary from mean atmospheric temperature to lower or higher, even boiling temperatures. Hot quality water springs are common to many parts of the world.

The presentation by ACWADAM deals with Pani Panchayats as a model of groundwater management.

Pani Panchayat is the name first given to a movement by Mr. Vilasrao Salunke for motivating farmers of Naigaon village of the drought-prone Purandhar taluka of Maharashtra in 1974. The government's inability to deal with the drought situation prompted him to take a 40 acre land on lease from the village temple trust and develop a recharge pond in the recharge area of the village, a dug well in the discharge zone and a lift irrigation system.

Farmers got impressed with the results demanding a scale up of the experiment leading to the setting up of Gram Gaurav Pratisthan (GGP) through which the work was expanded to encompass both groundwater and surface water management. 

The presentation by ACWADAM deals with a case study of augmenting groundwater resources by artificial recharge in Kolwan valley, Mulshi taluka, Pune. The DfID funded project was undertaken by the British Geological Survey in collaboration with its partners in India from 2002–2005. The objectives of the study were:

• Improved knowledge of the impacts of managed aquifer recharge in different physical and socio-economic settings.
• Guidance on scope and effectiveness of managed aquifer recharge for implementers, funders and policy makers.
• Dissemination of knowledge.

The presentation by ACWADAM is part of the training module developed by them on “Planning, development and management of groundwater with special reference to watershed management programmes”. Pumping a well and observing the effect of such pumping on the water level in the pumped well as well as in the adjoining parts of the aquifer through observation wells is the basic procedure involved in a pumping test.

This paper by the Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC) examines the extent of groundwater dependency and quality status in four South Indian cities viz., Hubli, Dharwad, Belgaum and Kolar cities. Widespread water shortage problems have resulted in increased dependency on groundwater with tapping the resources to unsustainable levels. In Karnataka, out of 208 urban local bodies that come under Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board, 41 depend on groundwater.

Floods: lessons to be learnt from the massive flooding in Surat city

A report by IIM criticises the way in which dams are managed in the country and calls for the need to apply Management Science / Operations Research techniques and information technology to improve dam management and prevention of floods

Flood fury: are we ready to face such an event?

The report by Carewater INREM Foundation deals with groundwater and well water quality in the alluvial aquifers of Central Gujarat. Gujarat has a hydrogeology representative of almost all aquifer types and depositional & formation eras. Contamination of aquifers along with scarcity of groundwater resources due to increase in water demand and reduction in recharge of groundwater from changing landuse, is a problem in Central Gujarat.

The report looks at groundwater quality and presents the results of the chemical analysis of groundwater samples from openwells & borewells of Belgaum district. The study broadly covers these aspects - (i) groundwater quality evaluation of the district (ii) identification of groundwater quality problems in various parts of district (iii) classification of groundwater, and (iv) application of DRASTIC model for assessing the vulnerability to groundwater pollution.

The report deals with the artificial recharging of an unconfined aquifer with injection well in the Hukkeri taluka in Ghataprabha sub-basin of Krishna river. The Ghataprabha sub-basin of Krishna like most river basins of peninsular India has been facing groundwater development problems varying in nature and severity. It has got a wide spectrum of issues such as cases of failure of wells at several places on the one hand, while some areas becoming unfertile due to waterlogging.

The subsurface aquifer systems in Mahanadi delta region in Orissa (India) is largely characterized by two groups of freshwater aquifer systems, both of which are prone to saline water mixing/migration with time and development:

• The south western Mahanadi delta region is represented by unconfined to semi-confined freshwater aquifers underlained by brackish/saline aquifer systems with a diffusion boundary.
• The north eastern parts of Mahanadi delta is represented by deep freshwater confined aquifers overlained by brackish/saline water aquifers with aquitard/ aquiclude boundary.