India Under Severe Water Stress - NASA!!!
10 Sep 2009,
The Above Image shows the declining Ground Water Level under North Western India the Dark Red color signifies a ground
water level of -12 cms, where as the dark blue signifies +12 cms.(source: NASA) |
Beneath Northern India’s irrigated fields of wheat, rice, and barley
... beneath its densely populated cities of Jaipur and
New Delhi, the
groundwater has been disappearing. Halfway around the world,
hydrologists, including Matt Rodell of NASA, have been hunting
for it. Where is northern India’s underground water supply going? According to
Rodell and colleagues, it is
being pumped and consumed by human
activities -- principally to irrigate cropland -- faster than the
aquifers can be replenished by
natural processes. They based their
conclusions -- published in the August 20 issue of Nature -- on
observations from NASA’s Gravity
Recovery and Climate Experiment
(GRACE).
Using NASA's GRACE satellite observations, one can observe and monitor water
changes in critical areas of the world, from one month
to the next,
without leaving our desks , these satellites provide a
window to underground water storage changes.
|
The northern Indian states of Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana have all of the ingredients for groundwater depletion: staggering population growth,
rapid economic development and water-hungry farms, which account for about 95 percent of groundwater use in the region.
Data provided by India's
Ministry of Water Resources suggested groundwater use was exceeding natural replenishment, but the regional rate of depletion was unknown. The NASA's
GRACE team has ascertained the rate of depletion, it is very alarming. It was found that groundwater levels have been declining by an average of
one
meter every three years (one foot per year). More than 109 cubic km
(26 cubic miles) of groundwater disappeared between 2002 and 2008 --
double the
capacity of India's largest surface water reservoir, the
Upper Wainganga, and triple that of Lake Mead, the largest man-made
reservoir in the
United States.The loss is particularly alarming because it occurred when there were
no unusual trends in rainfall. In fact, rainfall was slightly
above
normal for the period
So it can be understood how alarming the situation is? But still the unsustainable way of cultivation continues. This is accelerated by the free
electricity being provided for pumping out water. In certain districts of Punjab, farmers are going much deeper into earth, affecting the acquifiers
that took thousands of years to build up. If this hasn't been stopped, the affects are more catastrophic in the situations of drought and vagaries of
monsoons. This is partly also due to change of eating habits of people shifting to rice from wheat, rice requires more water compared to
wheat.
It is the time when people, government agenices, farmers should take bold steps like shifting to low water consuming varities, new techniques of
rice cultivation like SRI.....
But in India till a problem grows into a disaster an epidemic .. there will be no stimulus to do the things!!!
