Rajasthan faces one of the greatest scarcities of water resources in the country. It has 13.88% of India’s cultivable area, 5.6% of the population and 11% country’s livestock but it has only 1.1.6% of surface water and 1.70% of groundwater. Thus, Rajasthan a state with about 10% of the country’s land area has only around 1% of the its water resources.
After a short spell of monsoon coupled with erratic and scanty rainfall, Rajasthan is the most water-deficient state in the country. Rajasthan is situated in India’s semi-arid and arid region, characterised by high temperatures, low precipitation and mild winters. The average annual rainfall is approximately 313673 mm. Drought is the state’s most common recurrent disaster. All state districts have been declared drought-affected, having a serious impact on the bare survival needs of people, including safe drinking water and adequate nutrition.
Currently, the population is rising at a very rapid pace, and the dissemination of technological innovations has placed extreme pressure on the natural resources available. Every day, the difference between the supply of resources and the demand for resources is growing. The human instinct of survival is becoming even more competitive because water is one of the key natural resources for sustainability determination. There are three main sources in Rajasthan for supplying water, i.e. water from rain, water supply by canals, and groundwater extraction.
Rainwater contributes to a very limited supply in Rajasthan. The rainfall is approximately 10-25 cm with very few rainy days. To make use of water during the year, people rely on water harvesting techniques to collect rainwater. The Indira Gandhi Canal (IGC), which transfers water from the western Himalayas to western Rajasthan, acts as a ray of hope for the people of western Rajasthan. But the small canal capacity is not capable of feeding the demand of the entire regions. A large portion of it does not have access to the water provided by the IGC. When the rainwater and canal together do not fulfil the huge water demand, groundwater comes into use. While groundwater is not accessible in all places, it differs from place to place in terms of accessibility and land. If the depth of tube wells increases, the consistency of groundwater often worsens. The increased depth of tube wells provides the water with a very high TDS value, which increases the soil’s salinity and alkalinity, contributing to reduced farming returns.
With a multi fold increase in the population, Rajasthan has experienced unregulated urban expansion, which has had adverse effects on the state’s surface and ground waters. The quality of surface water in Rajasthan has been significantly and adversely influenced by industrial processes. Because of the discharge of industrial wastewater to the stormwater drainage network, many water sources have become unsightly and foul-smelling. Furthermore, the drying up of surface water bodies has caused complete dependence on groundwater supplies to meet increasing domestic and industrial water demands. The availability of groundwater in Rajasthan has also fallen to a critical limit, with more than 500 per cent over-exploitation in some areas and extreme quality degradation.
The government of Rajasthan and several private companies are taking various measures to boost Rajasthan’s water resources. Water Resource Vision 2045 is one such initiative taken up by the government under the State Water Policy, which was prepared to highlight the short-term (up to 2015) and long-term (up to 2045) thrust areas and action plan that are prerequisites for the successful implementation of the State Water Policy and to achieve the aim of optimum use of every drop of the scarce and valuable available water.
There are many ways that we can also help improve the quality of and access to water. To gather and store rainwater for drinking or recharging underground aquifers, one may introduce rainwater harvesting systems, and build wells to draw groundwater from aquifers that are underground. Via the use of filters, solar disinfection, or flocculants, we can provide home water treatment capabilities to keep drinking water healthy, to provide low-cost alternatives, such as chlorine tablets or plastic bottles that can be exposed to sunlight, to enhance water quality.
Written by Mriganka Kumari
Dhara Shakti Foundation 