Groundwater Occurrence - Public Perception of its Availability in India

This is in continuation of my previous article posting in Mission Ganga Knowledge Community, based on my four decades of field experience....

The groundwater resources have two components, viz. static and dynamic. Aquifer conditions vary with deep alluvial aquifers in northern India, and hard rock aquifers in much of western, central and southern India. The static reserves (aquifer zone below the water table fluctuation zone) have been estimated as 10812 BCM; and the dynamic component as 432 BCM. Since, significant interaction exists between shallow groundwater and surface water; these volumetric estimates may not indicate the actual groundwater situation which is highly heterogeneous in occurrence, distribution and quality from region to region and within the parts of a region across the country. In much of the North-West regions, deep groundwater renewal occurred from past humid climate during 30000-12000 yrs BP; and shallow groundwater renewal from limited modern recharge (