Climatic Change and Groundwater: India?s Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation

dc.creatorShah, Tushaar
dc.date2009
dc.date2014-06-13T11:40:54Z
dc.date2014-06-13T11:40:54Z
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-27T18:41:12Z
dc.descriptionFor millennia, India has been using surface storages and gravity flow to irrigate its crops. During the last 40 years, however, India has witnessed a decline in gravity flow irrigation and the rise of a booming ?water-scavenging? irrigation economy through millions of small, private tube wells. For India, groundwater has become at once critical and threatened. Climatic change will act as a force-multiplier; it will enhance the criticality of groundwater for drought-proofing agriculture and simultaneously multiply the threat to the resource. Groundwater pumping with electricity and diesel also accounts for an estimated 16-25 million tonnes of carbon emission, 4-6% of the country?s total emission. From the point of view of climatic change, India?s groundwater hot spots are western and Peninsular India. These are critical for mitigation of, and adaptation to, climatic change. To achieve both, India needs to make a transition from surface storages to ?managed aquifer storage? as the comerstone of its water strategy with proactive demand and supply-side management components. In doing this, India needs to learn intelligently from the experience of countries like Australia and the USA that have long experience in managed aquifer recharge.
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/38196
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/162713
dc.languageen
dc.rightsOpen Access
dc.sourceShah, Tushaar. 2009. Climatic Change and Groundwater: Indias Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation. In International Water Management Institute (IWMI). Strategic Analyses of the National River Linking Project (NRLP) of India Series 5. Proceedings of the Second National Workshop on Strategic Issues in Indian Irrigation, New Delhi, India, 8-9 April 2009. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute (IWMI). pp.175-195.
dc.subjectirrigation canals
dc.subjectgroundwater management
dc.subjectclimate
dc.subjecthydrology
dc.subjectwater storage
dc.subjectpumps
dc.subjectgroundwater recharge
dc.titleClimatic Change and Groundwater: India?s Opportunities for Mitigation and Adaptation
dc.typeConference Paper

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