K.G. Kumar

The past five years have witnessed a great imbalance in the State's availability of groundwater resources.

EVEN as the State's Meteorological Centre has announced that Kerala is likely to receive normal rainfall during the ongoing northeast monsoon, there are other signals that do not augur well for the future of Kerala's natural water supply.

Last week, a joint survey conducted by the Central Groundwater Board and the State Groundwater Department concluded that burgeoning demand and unregulated exploitation are threatening to hasten the depletion of groundwater resources in Kerala.

The National Water Policy mandates periodic scientific assessment of the country's groundwater resources. It was in this context that the joint survey was conducted. According to it, the past five years have witnessed a great imbalance in the State's availability of groundwater resources. A third of the development blocks in the study sample reported greater exploitation. In 1992, almost all the blocks were in the safe category, but by 1999, the groundwater resources in three blocks were overexploited.

In the latest assessment - for the year 2004 - fifty blocks have been declared unsafe, with five classified as "overexploited", 15 as "critical" and 30 as "semi-critical". The assessment methodology was based on monitoring wells to measure the pre- and post-monsoon water levels in the block.

Kerala is estimated to have four million wells, or one well for every eight to 10 persons. Keralites seem to be increasingly relying on well water, going by the national statistical benchmark for piped water of 40 litres per capita per day. That level of supply is available in only about 25 per cent of the panchayat wards studied.

According to the survey, Kerala extracts 46.88 per cent of the net annual groundwater availability of 6,229.55 mcm (million cubic metres). District-wise, Palakkad reports the highest availability, at 750.33 mcm, while Idukki has the lowest, 246.32 mcm. Even in some places where extraction has been meagre, the decline in groundwater level has been sharp. Specifically, these are areas in the foothills or high ranges, such as Pathanapuram and Anchal in Kollam district, Attapady in Palakkad, and Sultan Bathery in Wayanad. The low level of extraction in these places, it must be stressed, is not because of any proactive or precautionary resource management techniques or ethos but merely because of underdevelopment. With little industrial or developmental activity, there has been equally little incentive for extraction.

Contrast that with what has been happening in Kerala's paddy heartland of Kuttanad and Palakkad - the conversion of paddy fields for non-agricultural use, mainly as real estate commodities. This trend has had a marked impact on groundwater recharge. Between 1985 and 2005, according to representatives from the Agriculture Department quoted in The Hindu, the area of paddy fields in the State has shrunk from 8 lakh hectares in 1985 to 2.7 lakh hectares in 2005.

Meanwhile, the northeast monsoon, which set in over Kerala on October 12 this year, earlier than usual, continues to bring some hope. The season, which occurs between October and December, may not be as rainy as the principal June-August southwest monsoon, but it still delivers around 50 cm of rainfall.

According to the Met Centre, this season's monsoon will be normal too - as in the last 10 years, except for the deficit years of 1995 and 2000. However, given the rate at which groundwater is being exploited, normal measures will no longer do. Remember what has been happening around the Coca-Cola factory in Plachimada. Since April 2002, hardly a day has passed without some form of protest in front of the factory, as several places in Chittur taluk, including 10 colonies of Dalits and tribal people, had reportedly begun to experience a severe shortage of drinking water.

Clearly, this is not a situation that should be allowed to spread throughout the State. Mass awareness programmes - like those conducted by the Central Groundwater Authority - can help create awareness among Kerala's citizens about how to conserve the most important freshwater resource - groundwater.

The writer can be contacted at kgkumar@gmail.com

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