Surface Water

Over the years, unchecked soil erosion can lead to the formation of deeper and deeper gullies. There are several methods for controlling gully erosion, which can be chosen depending on the materials available.

If it is a small gully, vegetation can be planted in strips across the gully to slow the velocity of water, trap silt, and prevent further erosion.

These techniques are useful to slow runoff and erosion from sloping land, and also to revegetate degraded areas. Areas with high rainfall, steep slopes, and thin soils should use slightly graded bunds / terraces / trenches to allow some drainage.

Bunds have many benefits, including marking the boundaries of farm-holdings, slowing the movement of soil and water, and providing a place for integrating trees into agricultural systems. Here are some tips for using bunds within farmland:

• Cattle should be kept away from the area while establishing saplings, by using livehedge fencing. Cactus, Euphorbia spp, and Agave are useful for a livehedge fence.
• Larger trees can be planted on boundary bunds, and smaller trees which will be harvested more frequently can be planted on internal bunds, which divide one holding into separate sections.

Many NGOs are working along with communities and industries to save rivers in India. The river Ganga is relevant culturally, and its waters have been used extensively by industries and communities. At the same time, industrial and agricultural discharge or waste is being dumped at many stretches.

The Arkavathi programme interlinks communities that have been traditionally independent from one another. The Arkavathi River is one of the principal tributaries of the Cauvery in Karnataka and flows through Rural, Peri - Urban and Urban areas.

The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Technology for Sustainable Development and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne EPFL have produced a report titled Integrated Approaches for Sustainable Development in Water Resources Sector.

The Environmental Information Centre & Maharashtra Pollution Control Board has prepared water quality monitoring maps that, at a glance, reflects the various water sources and their locations.

The residents of Akshayanagar, Bangalore got together to save the Akshayanagar Lake situated inside the residential layout. Weeds had covered a major portion of the lake and it was also polluted with sewerage. The residents  multi-level initiatives are oriented towards reviving the lake and maintaining its purity.

The paper published in the Journal of Limnology begins by highlighting the problem of the gradual deterioration in the quality of lakes and informs that lakes are suffering from different stress factors and need to be restored using different approaches. The paper goes on to discuss the different approaches and technologies that can be used to restore lakes.

This document on the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People site by the Centre for Water Policy highlights the critical issues related to  groundwater in India and is divided into the following sections: