SwitchON Foundation today had organised a high level multi stakeholder convening at the Kalyan Krishi Vigyan Kendra. The discussion titled “Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible” was primarily aimed at creating awareness on the importance of groundwater conservation and recharge. The event was organized as a followup to a state level convening organized yesterday in Kolkata on the occasion of World Water Day.
Delivering the opening address, Dr. Asis Banerjee – Deputy Director of Agriculture ( Soil & Water Management) said – “Given the nature of depleting groundwater in the district, there is a need to promote more community led water management systems. Local Women SHG can play an important role in this context ” He later added by stating that “Agriculture has changed from what it used to be decades back, now we need to promote more water resilient crops like Millets, along with micro irrigation in the districts.”
This event highlighted the current critical challenges of groundwater in the state of West Bengal, with participating technical experts raising the alarm bell, calling for immediate policy action. Though West Bengal is not conventionally seen to be a water scarce state as compared to the arid and semi-arid states of central and western India, the Central Groundwater Board (CGWB) shows a consistent decline in the groundwater level in the state. According to CGWB, the overall groundwater level has declined by 1.28 meters from 1993 to 2019 in West Bengal.
Over the years there has been significantly increasing depletion of groundwater across India primarily caused by dying of wells due to continuous temperature rise and submersible pumping in the agricultural field. In the case of West Bengal, this is even more relevant for districts like Bankura, Birbhum, Purulia which have low cultivation areas due to low precipitation and very high temperature.
With growing demand for food production, there will be a need to draw more water from deeper water beds which will tend to increase the water stress and also affect the high energy demand and thereby further increase the irrigation pumping cost for Bengal Farmers. Therefore, it is important to look at the groundwater issue along with energy and agriculture which brings us to the need for developing a prospective action plan to address the nexus between energy-water-agriculture.
SwitchON Foundation has already developed a network of grassroot organizations in four states of East India to strengthen energy-water-agriculture (SEWA) nexus. In West Bengal, SEWA intends to support the existing state water conservation policies targeted towards facilitating sustainable irrigation across the state.
GoWB’s earlier flagship programme since 2011 “Jal Dharo-Jal Bharo” had been aimed at preserving precious water resources by large scale harvesting of rainwater as well as arresting runoff of surface water to improve and availability of precious water resources through the construction and management of Minor Irrigation. The core focus of World Water Day 2022 was to inspire action towards delivering the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). The theme of World Water Day 2022 was “Groundwater – Making the Invisible Visible.” Groundwater is invisible, but its impact is visible everywhere.
Speaking at the occasion, Vinay Jaju, MD SwitchON Foundation said – “Switchon foundation is working with Government departments and various experts from iit etc to promote community led groundwater management, sensitization of farmers and citizens, installation of infrastructure for water harvesting, micro irrigation and crop planning.”
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