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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- In the Large States category (overall), Chhattisgarh ranks 1st, followed by Odisha and Telangana, whereas, towards the bottom are Maharashtra at 16th, Assam at 17th and Gujarat at 18th. Gujarat is one State that has seen startling performance ranking 5th in the PAI 2021 Index outperforming traditionally good performing States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, but ranks last in terms of Delta
- In the Small States category (overall), Nagaland tops, followed by Mizoram and Tripura. Towards the tail end of the overall Delta ranking is Uttarakhand (9th), Arunachal Pradesh (10th) and Meghalaya (11th). Nagaland despite being a poor performer in the PAI 2021 Index has come out to be the top performer in Delta, similarly, Mizoram’s performance in Delta is also reflected in it’s ranking in the PAI 2021 Index
- In terms of Equity, in the Large States category, Chhattisgarh has the best Delta rate on Equity indicators, this is also reflected in the performance of Chhattisgarh in the Equity Pillar where it ranks 4th. Following Chhattisgarh is Odisha ranking 2nd in Delta-Equity ranking, but ranks 17th in the Equity Pillar of PAI 2021. Telangana ranks 3rd in Delta-Equity ranking even though it is not a top performer in this Pillar in the overall PAI 2021 Index. Jharkhand (16th), Uttar Pradesh (17th) and Assam (18th) rank at the bottom with Uttar Pradesh’s performance in line with the PAI 2021 Index
- Odisha and Nagaland have shown the best year-on-year improvement under 12 Key Development indicators.
- In the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Goa and Tamil Nadu and, the bottom three performers are Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar.
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers were Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram; and, the bottom three performers are Manipur, Assam and Meghalaya.
- Among the 60:40 division States, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh are the top three performers and Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Delhi appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland; and, the bottom three performers are Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh
- Among the 60:40 division States, Goa, West Bengal and Delhi appear as the top three performers and Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Bihar appear as the bottom three performers.
- Among the 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Tripura were the top three performers and Jammu & Kashmir, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh were the bottom three performers
- West Bengal, Bihar and Tamil Nadu were the top three States amongst the 60:40 division States; while Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan appeared as the bottom three performers
- In the case of 90:10 division States, Mizoram, Assam and Tripura were the top three performers and Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand featured as the bottom three
- Among the 60:40 division States, the top three performers are Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa and the bottom three performers are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Goa
- In the 90:10 division States, the top three performers are Mizoram, Sikkim and Nagaland and the bottom three performers are Manipur and Assam
In a diverse country like India, where each State is socially, culturally, economically, and politically distinct, measuring Governance becomes increasingly tricky. The Public Affairs Index (PAI 2021) is a scientifically rigorous, data-based framework that measures the quality of governance at the Sub-national level and ranks the States and Union Territories (UTs) of India on a Composite Index (CI).
States are classified into two categories – Large and Small – using population as the criteria.
In PAI 2021, PAC defined three significant pillars that embody Governance – Growth, Equity, and Sustainability. Each of the three Pillars is circumscribed by five governance praxis Themes.
The themes include – Voice and Accountability, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Regulatory Quality and Control of Corruption.
At the bottom of the pyramid, 43 component indicators are mapped to 14 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are relevant to the States and UTs.
This forms the foundation of the conceptual framework of PAI 2021. The choice of the 43 indicators that go into the calculation of the CI were dictated by the objective of uncovering the complexity and multidimensional character of development governance
The Equity Principle
The Equity Pillar of the PAI 2021 Index analyses the inclusiveness impact at the Sub-national level in the country; inclusiveness in terms of the welfare of a society that depends primarily on establishing that all people feel that they have a say in the governance and are not excluded from the mainstream policy framework.
This requires all individuals and communities, but particularly the most vulnerable, to have an opportunity to improve or maintain their wellbeing. This chapter of PAI 2021 reflects the performance of States and UTs during the pandemic and questions the governance infrastructure in the country, analysing the effectiveness of schemes and the general livelihood of the people in terms of Equity.
Growth and its Discontents
Growth in its multidimensional form encompasses the essence of access to and the availability and optimal utilisation of resources. By resources, PAI 2021 refer to human resources, infrastructure and the budgetary allocations. Capacity building of an economy cannot take place if all the key players of growth do not drive development. The multiplier effects of better health care, improved educational outcomes, increased capital accumulation and lower unemployment levels contribute magnificently in the growth and development of the States.
The Pursuit Of Sustainability
The Sustainability Pillar analyses the access to and usage of resources that has an impact on environment, economy and humankind. The Pillar subsumes two themes and uses seven indicators to measure the effectiveness of government efforts with regards to Sustainability.
The Curious Case Of The Delta
The Delta Analysis presents the results on the State performance on year-on-year improvement. The rankings are measured as the Delta value over the last five to 10 years of data available for 12 Key Development Indicators (KDI). In PAI 2021, 12 indicators across the three Pillars of Equity (five indicators), Growth (five indicators) and Sustainability (two indicators). These KDIs are the outcome indicators crucial to assess Human Development. The Performance in the Delta Analysis is then compared to the Overall PAI 2021 Index.
Key Findings:-
In the Scheme of Things
The Scheme Analysis adds an additional dimension to ranking of the States on their governance. It attempts to complement the Governance Model by trying to understand the developmental activities undertaken by State Governments in the form of schemes. It also tries to understand whether better performance of States in schemes reflect in better governance.
The Centrally Sponsored schemes that were analysed are National Health Mission (NHM), Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services scheme (ICDS), Mahatma Gandh National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SmSA) and MidDay Meal Scheme (MDMS).
National Health Mission (NHM)
INTEGRATED CHILD DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (ICDS)
MID- DAY MEAL SCHEME (MDMS)
SAMAGRA SHIKSHA ABHIYAN (SMSA)
MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME (MGNREGS)