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Dramatic Fall Rate In Ground Water; Annual Draws 1.5 Times The Amount Of Recharge

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Saizel S
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Dramatic Fall Rate In Ground Water; Annual Draws 1.5 Times The Amount Of Recharge
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Dramatic Fall Rate In The Ground Water; Annual Draws 1.5 Times The Amount Of Recharge The Punjab Government may have put a hold on the release of new tubewell connections. But the fall in rate in the groundwater would continue. Annually, the ground is drawn 1.5 times more than its being refill. Nearly 77 per cent of the cultivable area in the state is irrigated by tube wells, while the rest of them depends on canals or are dependent on rain. These were the new findings published in a book, “Emerging Water Insecurity in India: Lessons from an Agriculturally Advanced State”, written by eminent agro-economist RS Ghuman and Rajeev Sharma. According to the study, overall state is drawing 49 % more water that is being recharged in the ground from either rain, natural or manmade water bodies. The highest draft, of more than double the recharge, is happening in four districts — Sangrur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Moga, mainly in the central plain zone, where paddy is the main crop during the Kharif season. Among the other high-drawing districts are Barnala (94 per cent more than the recharge), Fatehgarh Sahib (91%), Patiala (89%), Ludhiana (62%), and Faridkot (60%). RS Ghuman said, “This is a classic case of water export from Punjab to the rest of India. Ninety per cent of the draft is for irrigation purposes, though an industrial and domestic draft of groundwater is also high.” He further said, “Merely stopping new tubewell connections will not help. We need a water use policy, which includes irrigation, along with crop diversification to shift area away from paddy, to stop the state from turning into a desert.” -PTC NEWS-
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