1. The importance of
groundwater in urban India
S.Vishwanath
Advisor
Arghyam

2. Urban India 2001
• 285 million (27.8%) of 1.02 billion
• 5161 cities
• 35 metros - million plus
• 388 large towns
• 4738 small and medium < 10 lakhs
• Projected 368 million by 2012

3. Photo : Norma Angelica Hernandez Bernal

7. Groundwater.....provides for the poor , since the poor are usually not connected to
the piped water supply

8. Water from a recharge well

10. What does urbanization do to
urban groundwater?
•Increase it in the core area through leaking pipes
(50%) and uncollected sewage
•Impair quality through point/non-point pollution
•75% of surface water is polluted by untreated
municipal waste water

11. Typology
• Lithology determines typology
• Coastal
• Hilly
• Hard Rock
• Alluvial
• Arid

13. Groundwater dependence
• 75 % of urban areas in alluvial areas
depend on groundwater
• 80 % of cities in hard rock areas depend
on external surface sources of water
• - Ankit Patel,S. Krishnan

14. But water is a state subject..

15. Karnataka
• 223 towns
• 46 completely dependant on groundwater
• 137 partially dependant on groundwater
• Bangalore (pop- 6.6million) for example
has 20 to 40 % dependence on
groundwater but is counted as non
groundwater dependant

16. The issue in cities
• Exploding water demand in cities
• Problems of urbanization : water shortage and flooding
• Need to manage water in cities holistically
Case study of a city as an example

17. Realities
• New paradigm required
• Multiple sourcing of water
• Source control for flood management
• Institutional coordination
• People’s participation in solution’s
• More space for ‘softer’ solutions like education
Water tanker Bore well

18. Water in the city
Lakes and tanks :
261 in 1960
81 in 1997
55 in 2000
Lake development authority created to
preserve and enhance surface water
bodies in city

19. The Cauvery river basin Bangalore

20. Groundwater use
• Impacts surface flows – The Arkavathy
river, 4000 sq km catchment, is now dry.
• 150 MLD supply source is now finished
• This water now must come from
groundwater within the city or from another
surface source

21. Surface water
• 800 mld is pumped 300 meter high
• 80 MW of energy is used
• 200,000 bore wells pump groundwater
from 100 to 300 metre depths
• ? MW of energy
• The gw energy nexus

23. Local hydrologic cycle

24. The change
• Before construction After construction
• Runoff 15 90 (75)
• Percolation 10 5 (-5)
• Evapo-transpiration 75 5 (-70)

25. Rain barrel : Does storing water from rain reduce pumping of water?

26. What should be the quality of
recharge water?

28. Sub-optimization is inevitable

29. Price will determine use
• Bangalore – Rs 72/ KL for industrial water
• Resulted in resource substitution – about
100 mld less demand on BWSSB , which
presumably came from groundwater
• Open well Rs 3/per KL
• Bore well Rs 15-18 / kl
• Cauvery iv stage Rs 48 per KL

30. The monitoring..
• Each connection is metered
• Each bore well pays Rs 50 /- a month as
sanitary cess . Can bore wells be metered
and volumetrically priced?
• Will people manage groundwater better if
it is cheaper than piped supply?

31. The construct of the problem
determines the solution
• Mulbagal town : 70,000 population
• Arghyam initiative for IUWM
• Grey area according to the CGWB
• Mines and Geology suggests 600 feet as
g.w. depth
• Studies indicate g.w. at 20 feet depthBGL
in a well defined shallow aquifer enough
for Mulbagal’s needs

32. Energy cost
• Approx 60 % of the muncipality’s budget
goes for energy charges towards pumping
costs annually

33. Sustainability
• Socially-
• Technically
• Institutionally- Where are the urban gwi’s?
• Legally- Where is the law?
• Economically- What is the incentive?
• Ecologically- How do we protect aquifers
and base flows?