For people living in coastal areas rivers and lakes are not ubiquitously available. They thus depend on groundwater for their needs, which leads to probabilities of saline water ingression. Groundwater close to the coast can be easily laden with salt, especially when the equilibrium between coastal aquifers and sea water is disturbed.
N.C. Mondal, V.P. Singh, V.S. Singh and V.K. Saxena in their paper titled ‘Determining the interaction between groundwater and saline water through groundwater major ions chemistry’ (2010) analyze that salt water ingression due to this mixing can occur due to a variety of pathways, and the degree to which this interaction can occur depends upon topography, sub-surface hydraulic properties, temporal variation in precipitation, local groundwater flow patterns, tidal and estuarine activity, sea level rise, low filtration, and excessive withdrawal.
They also opine that sea water can also reach inland aquifers through extraordinary events such as natural hazards i.e, through tsunamis and hurricanes. Apart from contaminating the groundwater, saline water ingression also affects the fertility of the soil, stunting agricultural production and ecosystems.
In a separate paper by V.K. Saxena, N.C. Mondal and V.S. Singh, titled ‘Identification of sea-water ingress using strontium and boron in Krishna Delta’ (2003) talk about the decrease in the fertility in the soil in the Krishna river delta in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh due to rapid sea water ingression.
Although known for high agricultural yields, over 70 per cent of the population in the Krishna river delta depend on groundwater for their water needs, and employ hand pumps, dug wells and dug-cum-bore wells for this purpose. Increasing salinity of groundwater over decades is turning most of the fertile land into wasteland and it is reported that there has also been a decrease in the cultivation rate.
The authors cite the chief causes for saline water ingression in the region as (i) increasing urbanization, (ii) an increasing number of bore wells, dug wells and hand pumps put to use. They note the chief cause for saline water ingression in the area as the pumping out of excessive groundwater through hand pumps, dug wells and dug-cum-bore wells.
India’s sea boundary is about 7500 km in length, stretching from the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat to the Sunderbans in West Bengal. The continental shelf in the western coast is much narrower than the eastern coast, and is littered with backwaters and mud flats, while the eastern coast is composed mainly of river deltas and estuaries. In India, according to data from the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), saline water can lie over an aquifer, freshwater can lie over saline water, or an alternatively arranged sequence of freshwater and saline water aquifers can occur (CGWB, 2017).
Two areas in India face the most acute problem with saline water ingression, namely, Minjur, Tamil Nadu and the Chorwad-Porbandar belt in the Saurashtra coast (Ground Water Quality Features of the Country, CGWB, 2017).
Saline banks descending inland are present in an 8 to 10 km stretch in Odisha in its Subarnrekha, Salandi and Brahamani regions. The Pondicherry region also reports marked saline water ingression, eastwards from the Neyveli lignite mines (CGWB, 2008).
Conserving India’s Groundwater
S.C. Dhiman and D.S. Thambi in their paper titled ‘Groundwater management in Coastal Areas’ (2010) suggest several measures for the management of aquifers in India –
- In the event of severe groundwater problem, an alternative water source or a suitable remedial measure must be found.
- Restrictions must be placed on groundwater withdrawal in these areas to prevent over-exploitation of groundwater sources.
- Awareness must be created among the masses about groundwater quality in these areas.
- A policy document, like the Model Groundwater Regulation Bill, must be instituted for equitable distribution of the resource.
- Threatened aquifers require the establishment of a buffer zone along the coast.
- The Coastal Regulation Act must include proper provisions for saline water ingression.
As groundwater accounts for about 85 per cent of rural drinking water, and bore well irrigation increased by 60 per cent between 1960-61 to 2006-07 (CGWB, 2017), the Indian government has increasingly felt the need for management of groundwater resources. This is especially pertinent in a country largely with seasonal rainfall where agriculture meets its water requirements mostly with groundwater.
With these considerations in mind, the government under the Central Ground Water Board instituted the National Project on Aquifer Mapping in the 12th and 13th Five Year Plan under the Ministry of Water Resources.
This undertakes documentation of aquifers combined with mapping, management and implementation of its goals. The project is meant to pave the way for a participatory groundwater management programme that is based on comprehensive coordination at all levels such as between government institutions, research institutes, civil society and local level operatives garnering raw data.
The government has also instituted the Indian National Committee on Groundwater (INCGW) for research on groundwater resources (CGWB, 2017). Although it is not known how far reaching the participatory programme will be in practice, these represent a tilt in policy towards proper enumeration and management of groundwater resources in India, that could eventually steer the policy infrastructure towards management of saline water ingress in India, that acts to reduce soil fertility in certain regions, thus hampering agricultural productivity.
However, groundwater resources are not fully documented in India and its management is quite nascent. The Ministry of Water Resources drafted the Model Bill for Conservation, Protection and Regulation of Groundwater in 2016 with the purpose of moving groundwater away from the Easements Act as private property to groundwater held by government as a public trust (Vishwanath, 2016).
Part of its stipulations include the notification of certain areas for the management of groundwater to be undertaken by State governments, with a clause that withdrawal from aquifers shall not disturb the natural equilibrium of water in these aquifers. This could establish limits on the otherwise excess extraction that frequently causes sea water to rush into aquifers, thus increasing saline water ingression.
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Petrol in India is cheaper than in countries like Hong Kong, Germany and the UK but costlier than in China, Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a Bank of Baroda Economics Research report showed.
Rising fuel prices in India have led to considerable debate on which government, state or central, should be lowering their taxes to keep prices under control.
The rise in fuel prices is mainly due to the global price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) going up. Further, a stronger dollar has added to the cost of crude oil.
Amongst comparable countries (per capita wise), prices in India are higher than those in Vietnam, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Venezuela. Countries that are major oil producers have much lower prices.
In the report, the Philippines has a comparable petrol price but has a per capita income higher than India by over 50 per cent.
Countries which have a lower per capita income like Kenya, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Venezuela have much lower prices of petrol and hence are impacted less than India.
“Therefore there is still a strong case for the government to consider lowering the taxes on fuel to protect the interest of the people,” the report argued.
India is the world’s third-biggest oil consuming and importing nation. It imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and so prices retail fuel at import parity rates.
With the global surge in energy prices, the cost of producing petrol, diesel and other petroleum products also went up for oil companies in India.
They raised petrol and diesel prices by Rs 10 a litre in just over a fortnight beginning March 22 but hit a pause button soon after as the move faced criticism and the opposition parties asked the government to cut taxes instead.
India imports most of its oil from a group of countries called the ‘OPEC +’ (i.e, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Russia, etc), which produces 40% of the world’s crude oil.
As they have the power to dictate fuel supply and prices, their decision of limiting the global supply reduces supply in India, thus raising prices
The government charges about 167% tax (excise) on petrol and 129% on diesel as compared to US (20%), UK (62%), Italy and Germany (65%).
The abominable excise duty is 2/3rd of the cost, and the base price, dealer commission and freight form the rest.
Here is an approximate break-up (in Rs):
a)Base Price | 39 |
b)Freight | 0.34 |
c) Price Charged to Dealers = (a+b) | 39.34 |
d) Excise Duty | 40.17 |
e) Dealer Commission | 4.68 |
f) VAT | 25.35 |
g) Retail Selling Price | 109.54 |
Looked closely, much of the cost of petrol and diesel is due to higher tax rate by govt, specifically excise duty.
So the question is why government is not reducing the prices ?
India, being a developing country, it does require gigantic amount of funding for its infrastructure projects as well as welfare schemes.
However, we as a society is yet to be tax-compliant. Many people evade the direct tax and that’s the reason why govt’s hands are tied. Govt. needs the money to fund various programs and at the same time it is not generating enough revenue from direct taxes.
That’s the reason why, govt is bumping up its revenue through higher indirect taxes such as GST or excise duty as in the case of petrol and diesel.
Direct taxes are progressive as it taxes according to an individuals’ income however indirect tax such as excise duty or GST are regressive in the sense that the poorest of the poor and richest of the rich have to pay the same amount.
Does not matter, if you are an auto-driver or owner of a Mercedes, end of the day both pay the same price for petrol/diesel-that’s why it is regressive in nature.
But unlike direct tax where tax evasion is rampant, indirect tax can not be evaded due to their very nature and as long as huge no of Indians keep evading direct taxes, indirect tax such as excise duty will be difficult for the govt to reduce, because it may reduce the revenue and hamper may programs of the govt.