India is home to 17% of the world’s population but it has access to just about 4% of the global freshwater reserves, which classifies it as a water stressed country. Therefore ensuring water security is a high priority for the Government of India.
89% of India’s water resources are used for agriculture, out of which 65% is withdrawn from under the ground. Industry too obtains around 80% of their water requirements from underground sources. Thus conserving groundwater is one of India’s biggest challenges.
GeoSmart India 2021 conference provided a platform for water professionals to exchange knowledge and gain an insight into the state-of-the-art in the current technology, techniques and solutions in water resource management session.
The geospatial and geosphysical techniques and the hydrological measurements will enable in to budget availability and to audit and account the water utility.
Future of groundwater in India
In the session titled “The Future of Groundwater in India”, Sanjay Marwah, Member, Haryana Water Resource Authority, said, “While dealing with challenges related to ground water conservation and restoring the water bodies the only solution is that everybody has to participate and chip in and then solve the problems. Until and unless these efforts are supported by a proper policy at the government level, the initiatives will remain contained in small areas.”
Dr. S. Suresh, Senior Hydrologist (Scientist-D), Central Groundwater Board, said, “The future of groundwater depends upon what sort of management expertise and interventions are required. Once we know the interventions, we will be equipped to implement those interventions.”
Geospatial technology for managing water problems in India
Geospatial Technologies are extremely critical for the water sector. They help not only to collect data about assets and resources, but also enables analysis and interpretation, reporting and monitoring, planning and decision making and to take informed action. Geospatial technologies help in increasing process efficiencies, reducing time for project deployment, ensure better resource management, and offers an integrated platform for assimilating data from varied sources to enable informed decision making.
Nikhilesh Kumar, Co-founder & CEO, Vassar Labs, explained in his presentation how they are using geospatial technologies like satellite imagery, GIS, mapping applications to monitor and manage water bodies. He said, “By using remote sensing data, identify and monitor water bodies like MI Tanks, reservoirs and ponds, rivers and tributaries, catchments, etc. with respect to their storage capacity and current storage. We are also using satellite imagery in top of satellite imagery to identify encroachments.”
