State government initiatives to control depleting groundwater level Shailender Singh Project Officer, Department of Revenue and Disaster management Government of Haryana. Received: May 19, 2018 Accepted: June 28, 2018 ABSTRACT Haryana a landlocked state is a home of 2.54 Crores with less than 1.4% of India s land area. Haryana has an agricultural economy and thus has exploited groundwater to a greater extent by irrigation. Though, the state government has put its efforts for sustainable use and is trying to balance out the use and the recharge but the consumption is still at a higher level. On concluding the study a few more techniques and more methods are suggested. Keywords: INTRODUCTION: In rural as well as in urban area of Haryana State, ground water is a major resource for drinking and other uses. Wherever surface water is inadequate or unavailable, ground water is exploited for drinking and irrigation purposes.haryana is a leading contributor to the country's production of food grains. Agriculture is the principal occupation of the residents of the state. More than 80 percent of the total geographical area of the state is under cultivation. The flat arable land is irrigated with ground water extracted with submersible pumps and tube wells. Excessive extraction of groundwater for agricultural purpose is a key contributor to vanishing groundwater in the state.therefore it is pertinent to mention that the usage of ground water for drinking purpose varies from 1 to 2 per cent and major extraction of ground water is being done for the agricultural needs.the Government of India has selected 10 Blocks in the country which have been declared as over exploited Blocks for adopting techniques of water conservation. Kaithal block has been declared over exploited by 178%.The average ground water consumption is way higher than the average ground water recharge.groundwater depletion will make us extract the water from the depth of the Earth. The more we pump the groundwater from the Earth s surface, the further down we have to go in order to get more. STATE GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES FOR SUSTAINABLE USE AND CONSERVATION OF GROUND WATER: Various departments under Government of Haryana have taken steps to rejuvenate Ground Water. PUBLIC HEALTH ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT: The departmentis responsible for supplying drinking water in the Rural and Urban areas, providing and maintaining sewerage and storm water drainage system in the urbanareas. Under sustainability component, department is constructing sustainability structures like roof harvesting structures etc. At present, there are 1702 canal based water supply scheme and 9030 tube wells have been installed by the department for drinking purpose in various villages,2980 tubewells are installed by the Department for drinking purpose. Department has launched a water conservation policy on 15 th August, 2012 for promoting water conservation and awards are given to those village Panchayats which fulfil the following eligibility criteria:- 1. The village Panchayats who ensure provision of taps on all the private and public connections. 2. A minimum of 75% of the households have sanctioned private water connections in the village. A special awareness campaign was launched during the year 2015-16 and teams constituted for this purpose visited 745342 houses in 67 towns in Haryana and 96702 water supplies, 157704 sewer connections were sanctioned during special campaign. During 2016-17, works have been executed for rain water harvesting/recharging by converting failed borewells into recharge wells/roof top rain water harvesting. THE FOREST DEPARTMENT: The department has constructed the following rain water harvesting/recharging structures in the state and is working for the sustainable development: 1. Water Harvesting Dams 2. Restoration of old Dams 3. Percolations tanks 4. Crate wire structure 5. Cement structure 846 IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews Research Paper
[VOLUME 5 I ISSUE 3 I JULY SEPT 2018] e ISSN 2348 1269, Print ISSN 2349-5138 http://ijrar.com/ Cosmos Impact Factor 4.236 6. Check Dams HARYANA URBAN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: Steps taken by HUDA for conservation of water/avoid exploitation of ground water: 1. Roof top rain water harvesting scheme: From 31.10.2001, roof top rain water harvesting-conservation & Artificial recharge of ground water is compulsory in Govt. Buildings/HUDA Buildings.Instructions to all Administrator/Estate Officers of HUDA were issued to ensure th at nooccupation certificate is issu ed unless the implementation of roof top rain water harvesting is made. Station wise detail of rain water harvesting systems constructed by HUDAis as under: Table:1 Sr. No Station No. of rain water harvesting wells 1. Panchkula constructed 22 2. Karnal 5 3. Kaithal 2 4. Yamuna nagar 1 1 5 Kurukeshtra 5 6 Jind 5 7 Gurgaon 376 8 Fridabad 23 9. Palwal 2 10. Rojkameo 1 11. Sonepat 7 12. Panipat 11 TOTAL 460 2. Installation of dual button flushing cistern: Haryana Govt. has made installation of dual button cisterns (capacity 10/5 Litre and 6/3 Litre) mandatory for all types of plot holders in HUDA areas in addition to all Govt. Buildings and Buildings in licensed areas. Occupation certificate shall not be issued in the absence of dual button flushing cisterns on these buildings. 3. Graded tariff for economic use of water: The graded water tariff has been implemented in various Urban Estates in Haryana for economical domestic use of water. 4. Reuse of tertiary/recycled water:to avoid exploitation of grou nd wa ter, tertiary treated water is being used for irrigation/flushing purpose in some of Urban Estates under HUDA.Efforts are being made for its implementation in other Urban Estates also. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE: The steps taken by Department of Agriculture for water conservation in the State of Haryana are as follows: 1. The Haryana State Preservation of Sub Soil Water Act, 2009" has been enacted which prohibits sowing of Paddy before 15 th of May and transplanting of paddy before 15 th of June. This Act has been quite successful in checking the exploitation of ground water especially in Paddy growing areas. 2. The Department has introduced a State Plan Scheme from the year 2005-06 namely "Accelerated Recharge to Ground Water" to recharge the ground water in water deficit areas of the State. Under this scheme, 682 Rain Water Harvesting structures have been constructed till date. 3. The Department is encouraging the farmers to adopt Drip and Sprinklers for irrigation to economize the use of irrigation water. For the promotion of Sprinkler System, subsidy is being provided. Drip and Sprinkler irrigation systems save up to 30-40% of water used in irrigation. 4. In order to prevent seepage and evaporation losses, the Department is providing subsidy to the farmers @ 50% of the cost of UGPL system for laying Underground Pipe Line System (UGPL). Research Paper IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews 847
5. Land leveling with Laser land leveler is used for precision/scientific leveling of land thereby facilitates effective utilization of farm inputs. It saves about 20% water used in irrigation.department is promoting use of laser leveling technology by way of demonstrations, providing machines on custom hiring basis and subsidy @ upto 50%. Department is promoting use of Zero tillage technology by way of demonstrations and providing financial assistance. 6. Direct Seeded Rice (D.S.R) and Crop Diversification programs have been launched in the State for conservation of natural groundwater resource. 7. To monitor the water table depth and its quality, 40 Digital Water data loggers have been installed in all blocks of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Kurukshetra and Karnal districts during the year 2011-12. 17 Digital Water data loggers have also been installed in remaining 17 districts during the year 2012-13. 8. Mass Awareness Campaigns are being launched to educate the farmers regarding conservation of ground water and judicial use of irrigation water. Farmers are being advised to grow less water intensive crops. Department has provided district wise total depth to water table & total decline June, 1999 to June, 2015 Table2: Sr. No. District Depth to water table (metres) Decline in water table (metres June 1999 to June, 2015 June, 1999 June, 2015 1999-2015 1 Ambala 5.45 11.15-7.66 2 Bhiwani 16.19 22.59-17.84 3 Faridabad 8.71 16.37-11.52 4 Fatehabad 6.42 24.26-1.76 5 Gurgaon 15.22 26.74-7.52 6 Hissar 5.87 7.63 0.92 7 Jind 5.92 13.44-17.81 8 Jhajjar 4.49 3.57-17.25 9 Kurukshetra 16.72 34.53-10.76 10 Kaithal 7.78 25.03-19.95 11 Karnal 7.59 18.35-3.90 12 M.garh 25.01 44.96-3.95 13 Mewat 7.14 11.04-9.07 14 Palwal 5.72 9.67-6.19 15 Panipat 8.53 17.60 0.00 16 Panchkula 11.17 17.36-11.56 17 Rohtak 3.80 3.80-3.03 18 Rewari 13.07 24.63-9.49 19 Sonepat 5.33 8.36-5.58 20 Sirsa 9.45 18.94-8.39 21 Yamunanagar 7.13 12.71-5.58 TOTAL 9.36 17.75-8.39 GROUND WATER REGIME MONITORING: Central Ground Water Board, North Western Region, Chandigarh has established Ground Water Observation Wells (GWOW) in Haryana State for monitoring the water levels. The Ground Water Observation Wells district wise split is given in Table 3. The density of the observation wells being monitored in the state of Haryana is given in Table 4. 848 IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews Research Paper
[VOLUME 5 I ISSUE 3 I JULY SEPT 2018] e ISSN 2348 1269, Print ISSN 2349-5138 http://ijrar.com/ Cosmos Impact Factor 4.236 S. No. Table:3 District wise ground water observation wells in Haryana State. No. of GWOW No. of GWOW as on established during 31.3.2015 2014-2015 Districts Total no. GWOW as on 31.3.2016 DW PZ TOTAL DW PZ TOTAL DW PZ TOTAL 1 Ambala 19 19 38 25 1 26 44 20 64 2 Bhiwani 31 24 55 7 45 52 38 69 107 3 Faridabad 21 8 29-7 14 7 14 22 36 4 Fatehabad 19 15 34 0 0 0 19 15 34 5 Gurgaon 11 43 54-2 2 0 9 45 54 6 Hissar 42 16 58-4 2-2 38 18 56 7 Jhajjar 28 9 37 1 0 1 29 9 38 8 Jind 38 27 65 0 0 0 38 27 65 9 Kurukshetra 1 40 41 0 56 56 1 96 97 10 Kaithal 17 31 48 0 0 0 17 31 48 11 Karnal 6 68 74 2 27 29 8 95 103 12 Mahendergarh 21 12 33 0 0 0 21 12 33 13 Mewat 14 17 31 10 1 11 24 18 42 14 Palwal 27 17 44-1 2 1 26 19 45 15 Panipat 10 39 49 0 1 1 10 40 50 16 Panchkula 19 6 25 14 1 15 33 7 40 17 Rohtak 29 5 34 0 0 0 29 5 34 18 Rewari 17 19 36 11 0 11 28 19 47 19 Sonepat 35 39 74 0 0 0 35 39 74 20 Sirsa 42 18 60-2 0-2 40 18 58 21 Yamunanagar 17 33 45-1 2 1 16 35 51 TOTAL 481 488 964 53 154 207 517 659 1176 Table 4:Density of shallow ground water observation wells in Haryana State. Research Paper IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews 849
CONCLUSION: The Government of the state has put in efforts for sustainable ground water usage, but keeping in view the over exploitation of the ground water makes the efforts nullify and the state needs much more efforts to be put in. The usage of the ground water is way higher than its replacement. More techniques for artificial groundwater recharge needs to be incorporated, like that of basin spreading, dug well recharge, pond recharge shaft. Even the typical methods of rain water harvesting must be given a thought, because it is high time to check depleting groundwater levels. REFERENCES: Ground water year book of Haryana state 2015-2016 by Central Groundwater Board Ministry of Water resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Government of India. Indian Water Portal (www.indiawaterportal.org). Wikipedia.org. Science Direct (Sciencedirect.com). Report from Public Health Engineering Department. Report from Haryana Urban Development Department. Report from Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department. NCERT Geography. NCERT Disaster Management. 850 IJRAR- International Journal of Research and Analytical Reviews Research Paper