The government recognises that the groundwater table is falling
the fact that harvesting rainwater can, to a large extent, solve the water shortage in India, was echoed at a seminar in New Delhi recently. Organised by the Central Ground Water Board ( cgwb ), ministry of water resources, the seminar, 'Artificial Recharge of Ground Water', proposed to evolve methods to harvest water in the ground water basin.
Inaugurating the seminar, Union minister of state for rural areas and employment, Babagouda Patil, highlighted the need to harvest rainwater to reverse the trend of falling groundwater levels in the country.
In his welcome address, D K Chadha, chairperson, cgwb , stressed that harvesting rainwater could recharge groundwater reservoirs, which could then be used to irrigate more than 200 million hectares. He asked the participants to evolve innovative designs to tap this potential. Arun Kumar, additional secretary, ministry for water resources asked the participants to evolve principles, methodology and application of these designs.
In his Presidential Address, Z Hassan, secretary, ministry of water resources, called for an integrated approach through watershed and inter-basin transfer of water by linking major rivers, especially in the east coast of India as means to recharge groundwater.
The seminar was attended by about 300 participants who presented some 52 papers. Most of the participants were from the different offices of Central Ground Water Board throughout the country.
The conference discussed the issue of artificial recharge of ground water in six different technical sessions. The seminar was expected to evolve common guidelines that are economically, technically and environmentally viable.
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