Over-exploitation of groundwater is most acute in which group of states?

Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu

The north-eastern hill states such as Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram

Haryali, a watershed development project sponsored by the Central Government to help rural people conserve water for drinking, irrigation, fisheries and afforestation, is executed through:

Gram Panchayats with people’s participation

Municipal corporations of large cities

Assertion (A): Irrigation is necessary in much of India even in years of normal rainfall. Reason (R): Rainfall in India is unevenly distributed in space and time, falling mostly in a few monsoon months.

Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A

Water Resources — Use, Problems and Conservation

Water is a cyclic resource, but the amount of fresh water usable at any one time is limited. India holds about 4 per cent of the world’s water resources while supporting a much larger share of its people, so the way that water is used, polluted and conserved is a national question. This chapter covers the sources of water, the demand for it — dominated by irrigation — the problems of falling groundwater and pollution, and the ways of conserving it: laws, recycling, watershed management and rainwater harvesting. Questions name a scheme and ask for its place, or describe a practice and ask for its benefit.

Sources of Water

Surface water comes from rivers, lakes, ponds and tanks. The Ganga, Brahmaputra and Barak systems carry a large share of India’s river water, but much of the flow comes in the monsoon months and runs to the sea.
Groundwater use is very high in the north-west — Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan — and in parts of the south such as Tamil Nadu, where it is being over-exploited; it is still comparatively low in states such as Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Kerala.
Lagoons and backwaters along the coasts of Kerala, Odisha and West Bengal hold brackish water, used for fishing and for irrigating certain varieties of paddy and coconut.

Demand for Water — Irrigation First

Agriculture is by far the largest user of both surface water and groundwater in India; domestic and industrial use take much smaller shares. Irrigation is needed because rainfall is unevenly distributed in space and time — much of it falls in a few monsoon months, and some regions receive little. Multiple cropping is impossible without irrigation in the dry season, and high-yielding varieties need regular moisture. In Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh the great majority of the net sown area is irrigated, which is why groundwater levels there are falling.

🎯 Why the water table falls where farming is most successful

The Green Revolution belt draws water from tube wells far faster than rain recharges the aquifers, and water-intensive crops such as rice deepen the deficit. Over-use also brings up harmful minerals: fluoride contamination has been reported in parts of Rajasthan and Maharashtra, and arsenic in parts of West Bengal and Bihar.

Deteriorating Water Quality

Water is polluted when foreign matter — micro-organisms, chemicals, industrial and other wastes — makes it unfit for use. Rivers flowing through densely populated agricultural and urban areas, such as the Ganga and the Yamuna, receive industrial effluents, untreated sewage and agricultural run-off carrying fertilisers and pesticides. The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Environment Protection Act, 1986 are the main laws, but their enforcement has been uneven; awareness and people’s participation are needed alongside them.

Conservation and Management

National Water Policy: the policy gives the highest priority to drinking water, ahead of irrigation, hydropower and other uses.
Recycle and reuse: lower-quality water, such as treated waste water, can be used for industrial cooling, fire-fighting and gardening, saving fresh water for drinking.
Watershed management: the efficient management and conservation of surface and groundwater resources of a drainage area, through percolation tanks, recharge wells and check dams, together with afforestation and soil conservation.
Rainwater harvesting: capturing rainwater — from rooftops or in pits, ponds and tanks — to recharge aquifers. Tamil Nadu has made rainwater harvesting structures compulsory for all houses. The Jal Shakti Abhiyan (2019) is a national campaign for water conservation.

Watershed schemes the paper names
Scheme	Where / who	What it does
Haryali	Sponsored by the Central Government; executed by Gram Panchayats with people’s participation	Enables rural people to conserve water for drinking, irrigation, fisheries and afforestation
Neeru-Meeru ("Water and You")	Andhra Pradesh	People’s participation in building water-harvesting structures
Arvary Pani Sansad	Alwar district, Rajasthan	Community-built percolation tanks, dug-out ponds (johads) and check dams

Rainwater harvesting increases water availability, checks the decline of the groundwater table, improves groundwater quality by diluting contaminants such as fluoride and nitrates, prevents soil erosion and flooding, and — where it recharges coastal aquifers — arrests the intrusion of salt water. It is low-cost and can be done by households and villages themselves.

Key takeaways

India has about 4 per cent of the world’s water resources for a far larger share of its people.
Agriculture is the largest user of both surface and groundwater; irrigation is needed because rainfall is uneven in space and time.
Groundwater is over-exploited in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu; fluoride and arsenic contamination follow over-use.
The Ganga and Yamuna are heavily polluted; the Water Act (1974) and the Environment Protection Act (1986) are the main laws.
The National Water Policy gives drinking water the highest priority.
Haryali: centrally sponsored, run by Gram Panchayats; Neeru-Meeru: Andhra Pradesh; Arvary Pani Sansad: Alwar, Rajasthan.
Rainwater harvesting recharges aquifers, dilutes contaminants, reduces erosion and flooding, and checks salt-water intrusion; Tamil Nadu made it compulsory for houses.

Practice questions (8)

Attempt each one before opening the answer. Every explanation names the tempting wrong option as well as the right one, because that is where marks are lost.

Arvary Pani Sansad, a people’s initiative that built johads and check dams to conserve water, is associated with:
1. Andhra Pradesh
2. Alwar district of Rajasthan
3. The backwaters of Kerala
4. The Sundarbans of West Bengal
Show answer
Answer: B — Alwar district of Rajasthan
Arvary Pani Sansad is the community effort of the Alwar district in Rajasthan, where villagers built percolation tanks, dug-out ponds (johads) and check dams. Andhra Pradesh is the home of Neeru-Meeru, a different scheme, and the backwaters of Kerala and the Sundarbans are coastal water bodies, not watershed programmes.
Which state has made rainwater harvesting structures compulsory for all houses?
1. Punjab
2. Kerala
3. West Bengal
4. Tamil Nadu
Show answer
Answer: D — Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu made rainwater harvesting structures compulsory for all houses, a response to falling groundwater in a state that relies heavily on it. Punjab also faces a falling water table but is known for tube-well irrigation rather than this rule, and Kerala and West Bengal receive heavy rainfall and are not the state the measure is associated with.
Which sector is the largest user of both surface water and groundwater in India?
1. Agriculture
2. Domestic use
3. Industry
4. Navigation
Show answer
Answer: A — Agriculture
Agriculture, mainly through irrigation, uses far more surface water and groundwater than any other sector, because rainfall is uneven and multiple cropping and high-yielding varieties need assured water. Domestic and industrial uses take much smaller shares, and navigation uses rivers without consuming the water at all.
Over-exploitation of groundwater is most acute in which group of states?
1. Chhattisgarh and Odisha
2. Kerala and Assam
3. Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu
4. The north-eastern hill states such as Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram
Show answer
Answer: C — Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu
Groundwater use is highest in the north-west — Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan — and in Tamil Nadu, where intensive irrigation draws water faster than rain recharges it. In Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Kerala groundwater use is still comparatively low, and the north-eastern hill states have abundant rainfall and little tube-well irrigation.
India’s National Water Policy gives the highest priority to which use of water?
1. Irrigation
2. Hydropower generation
3. Drinking water
4. Industrial use
Show answer
Answer: C — Drinking water
The National Water Policy places drinking water first in its order of priorities, because it is essential to life; irrigation, hydropower and other uses follow. Irrigation consumes the most water, which is the tempting confusion — but the largest user and the highest priority are different questions.
Haryali, a watershed development project sponsored by the Central Government to help rural people conserve water for drinking, irrigation, fisheries and afforestation, is executed through:
1. Private water companies
2. Gram Panchayats with people’s participation
3. Municipal corporations of large cities
4. The state electricity boards
Show answer
Answer: B — Gram Panchayats with people’s participation
Haryali is centrally sponsored but carried out by Gram Panchayats with the participation of the people, which is the point of watershed management — the users of the water manage it. Municipal corporations govern cities, not rural watersheds, and neither private companies nor electricity boards run this programme.
Assertion (A): Irrigation is necessary in much of India even in years of normal rainfall.
Reason (R): Rainfall in India is unevenly distributed in space and time, falling mostly in a few monsoon months.
1. Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
2. Both A and R are true, but R is not the correct explanation of A
3. A is true, but R is false
4. A is false, but R is true
Show answer
Answer: A — Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A
Both statements are true and R is the reason for A. Even a normal monsoon delivers most of its rain in a few months and leaves dry seasons and dry regions; growing a second or third crop, and meeting the regular water needs of high-yielding varieties, therefore requires irrigation whatever the year’s total rainfall.
Consider the following statements about rainwater harvesting:
A. It helps to check the decline of the groundwater table.
B. It improves groundwater quality by diluting contaminants such as fluoride and nitrates.
C. It increases soil erosion by concentrating run-off.
D. It increases the intrusion of salt water into coastal aquifers.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
1. A, B and C only
2. B and D only
3. A, B, C and D
4. A and B only
Show answer
Answer: D — A and B only
A and B are benefits of rainwater harvesting. C and D state the opposite of what it does: by holding rain where it falls it reduces run-off, soil erosion and flooding, and by recharging coastal aquifers it arrests salt-water intrusion rather than increasing it. Only the option with A and B alone is correct.