Sustainable use of groundwater is becoming critical in India and requires effective participation from local communities along with technical, social, economic, policy and political inputs. Access to groundwater for farming communities is also an emotional and complex issue as their livelihood and survival depends on it. In this article, we report on transdisciplinary approaches to understanding the issues, challenges and options for improving sustainability of groundwater use in States of Gujarat and Rajasthan, India. In this project, called Managed Aquifer Recharge through Village level Intervention (MARVI), the research is focused on developing a suitable participatory approach and methodology with associated tools that will assist in improving supply and demand management of groundwater. The study was conducted in the Meghraj watershed in Aravalli district, Gujarat, and the Dharta watershed in Udaipur district, Rajasthan, India. The study involved the collection of hydrologic, agronomic and socio-economic data and engagement of local village and school communities through their role in groundwater monitoring, field trials, photovoice activities and education campaigns. The study revealed that availability of relevant and reliable data related to the various aspects of groundwater and developing trust and support between local communities, NGOs and government agencies are the key to moving towards a dialogue to decide on what to do to achieve sustainable use of groundwater. The analysis of long-term water table data indicated considerable fluctuation in groundwater levels from year to year or a net lowering of the water table, but the levels tend to recover during wet years. This provides hope that by improving management of recharge structures and groundwater pumping, we can assist in stabilizing the local water table. Our interventions through Bhujal Jankaars (BJs), (a Hindi word meaning “groundwater informed” volunteers), schools, photovoice workshops and newsletters have resulted in dialogue within the communities about the seriousness of the groundwater issue and ways to explore options for situation improvement. The BJs are now trained to understand how local recharge and discharge patterns are influenced by local rainfall patterns and pumping patterns and they are now becoming local champions of groundwater and an important link between farmers and project team. This study has further strengthened the belief that traditional research approaches to improve the groundwater situation are unlikely to be suitable for complex groundwater issues in the study areas. The experience from the study indicates that a transdisciplinary approach is likely to be more effective in enabling farmers, other village community members and NGOs to work together with researchers and government agencies to understand the groundwater situation and design interventions that are holistic and have wider ownership. Also, such an approach is expected to deliver longer-term sustainability of groundwater at a regional level.

Groundwater management practices need to take hydrogeology, the agro-climate and demand for groundwater into account. Since agroclimatic zones have already been demarcated by the Government of India, it would aid policy makers to understand the status of groundwater recharge and discharge in each agroclimatic zone. However, developing effective policies to manage groundwater at agroclimatic zone and state levels is constrained due to a paucity of temporal data and information. With the launch of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission in 2002, it is now possible to obtain frequent data at broad spatial scales and use it to examine past trends in rain induced recharge and groundwater use. In this study, the GRACE data were used to estimate changes to monthly total water storage (TWS) and groundwater storage in different agroclimatic zones of Rajasthan, India. Furthermore, the long-term annual and seasonal groundwater storage trends in the state were estimated using the GRACE data and the trends were compared with those in rainfall data. The methodology based on GRACE data was found to be useful in detecting large scale trends in groundwater storage changes covering different agroclimatic zones. The analysis of data shows that groundwater storage trends depend on rainfall in previous years and, therefore, on the antecedent moisture conditions. Overall, the study indicates that if suitable groundwater recharge methods and sites are identified for the state, there is potential to achieve more groundwater recharge than what is currently occurring and, thus, enhancing the availability of water for irrigated agriculture.

India is the greatest groundwater consumer in the world, with estimated annual withdrawals exceeding 230 km3. More than 60% of irrigated agriculture, 85% of drinking water supplies, and 50% of urban and industrial water needs are dependent on sustainable groundwater management. Regardless, groundwater overextraction is a growing problem in many regions. Predictions of groundwater resource availability in India are problematic in part because of a limited number of monitoring sites and insufficient data quality and quantity. Regional groundwater assessments are further complicated because of sporadic and low-frequency data. To help overcome these issues and more accurately quantify groundwater resource availability, scientists have begun using satellite-derived remote sensing data. In this study, the authors used seasonal and annual hydrologic signals obtained by NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites and simulated soil moisture variations from land data assimilation system...

The water resources of the Koshi Basin (87,311 km²) are largely untapped, and while proposals for their development exist, their impacts on current and future water demand are not quantified. The current study is the first to evaluate the impacts of 11 proposed development projects for hydropower generation and water storage. We find that 29,733 GWh of hydropower could be generated annually and 8382 million m³ of water could be stored. This could satisfy unmet demand in the current (660 million m³) basin situation and in future scenarios – i.e. population, agricultural and industrial growth – that are projected to have 920, 970 and 1003 million m³ of unmet demand, respectively, by 2050.