We
have been noticing that lately water level of ground water in
Maharashtra State has gone down considerably so much so that people
cannot draw water from even deeply bored bore wells. When I studied,
the water problem that continues in this state. I found that in last
one thousand years there was famine condition for about 720 years and
for the rest period, it was not that bad. However, it was never very
good! This indicates that Maharashtra state is a naturally scarcity
prone region. Nevertheless, throughout that scarcity time, people did
not have problem of getting water from their ground level wells; for
drinking and other domestic purposes. Today we see that even that
meager supply of water is not possible for those ground level wells.
That means something has seriously gone wrong in the system. It is
noticed that the ground water level is maintained by a natural
phenomenon.
To
understand that phenomenon, we should see how rainwater moves in the
ground. As far as state of Maharashtra is concerned, we notice that
almost 80 % rainfall takes place in the mountainous region of
Sahyadri range. These mountains absorb about 30 % water that rain has
given and rest of the water flows over into rivers. One study shows
that this hilly region has about 20 % porosity. That mean, if we
measure total volume of this mountain range we may say 20 percent of
that is void. During rainy season that void is filled by rainwater
and it is retained there in the pores. In a way, we may say that
these hills are natural water storage tanks. Due to gravity in due
course, this accumulated water slowly flow down under gravitational
force. This water gradually carried in the under ground veins, those
exist throughout the ground. These veins are the primary supply lines
of water to underground water. If this process works well, we can
have good supply of water in bore wells as well as ground level
wells. Now let us see what happens with that water which flows in the
rivers. During rainy season as heavy rain causes floods in the rivers
and the floodwater after filling the river trough overflows into the
plains. This causes much loss of property and life. This loss is an
apparent effect along with that there is one more important effect of
the flood; these floods soak the entire ground of that region and
this flood eventually help in increasing the water table of that
region by the process called recharging of ground water table.
During
our five year plans, our not so prudent, planners decided to build
dams on all those rivers those cause spate and by that to stop
occasional floods during rainy season. We build dams, stopped floods
successfully, and with that stopped that process of recharging of
ground water table by these floods. This explains why we have water
problem today even for domestic water use. Dams are made so big that
almost all water is stored in them. A very trickle is only allowed to
flow in the river trough. As a result natural process of recharging
ground through the flowing water in the riverbeds is also stopped. We
should take a very serious note that we have plans to flatten mounds
to prepare flat ground for farming; this flattening of mounds amounts
to removal of natural water tanks. Eventually turning many wells in
that region, dry!
It
is a situation where any repair is not apparently visible. However,
we shall consider what can be done to help the natural process of
recharging of ground water table that I shall consider in my next
post.
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