Challenges, monitoring and development of groundwater in North India

In order to fulfil the requirements for agricultural, domestic and industrial purposes, the dependency on groundwater in North India is rapidly increasing. Agriculture being the main source of livelihood of the rural population, heavy dependence on groundwater is evident from the fact that 95 % of the total irrigated area receives groundwater irrigation. A few prominent questions which the planners and decision makers are confronted with relate to the quantity and quality of groundwater. Other factors include location of recharge in intake areas, temporal and spatial variability of recharge, inter-linkage between groundwater and surface water, existing hydraulic gradients and water table situation, groundwater flow between different formations, etc. Groundwater has experienced major problems resulting from indiscriminate exploitation as well as combination of imprudent irrigation, different pollution sources such as urban runoff, nitrogenous fertilisers used in agriculture, seepage from contaminated industrial sites and industrial discharges. Enhancement in water availability and safe water supply should always be guided by the effective public policies, plans and local technologies, in addition to political, socioeconomic and other factors.