The recent Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled on December 19th this year clearly mentions that 85 % of the rural India depends on the groundwater. Almost all the government programs supply water to the villages through tubewells. Poor recharge of groundwater due to geological reasons and environmental degradation (where urbanization is the key player) make most of the tubewells and borewells defunct in the rural areas. The government bodies opt for short cuts to solve the water scarcity. They dig more and more borewells every year. Such is the story of Bijapur district in northern Karnataka.

The district of Bijapur is a classic example where drinking water supply system existed way back in sixteenth century. Historians confirm that the city and the neighboring areas harvested rainwater in bavadis and used the water for different potable and non potable purposes. It is ironical that today the same area is hitting the headlines because of scarcity of drinking water. The history of rainfall in the district for the last ten years reveals that the amount of rainfall decreased exponentially in the area. The area lies on black clayey soil inhibiting natural recharging of groundwater. The groundwater development in Indi taluka has already reached 85 %. The groundwater in the area is hard and salinity is high. In spite of having three very important rivers Krishna, Don and Bhima, the area is a drought prone area. This is because the rivers are non perennial in nature and thus are often dry during the lean period. According to Dr. Kushal Das, Professor in Al Ameen Medical College & Hospital, Bijapur, “Water scarcity is very common to entire Bijapur district in spite of having river Krishna and other two rivers in this district. Water supply by tankers is a common feature.”

This year when the rainfall was pretty lower than the normal amount, a huge crisis of water occurred in ninety villages of the district. The worst affected taluka was Muddebihal in which most of the villages are facing shortage of water. Water was brought from far off places and supplied through tankers. The government invested lakh of rupees in drilling more and more tubewells in these over exploited and low yielding areas (less than 1000 litres per hour). The government also took over private borewells in Roogi and Tadavalaga villages of Indi taluka to supply water in the neighboring villages in the month of July this year. Recently the government is launching multi crore projects based on the surface water of the non perennial rivers in the area. The first phase of the program has been launched this month where old and new tanks in the district will be filled up by water from Krishna river at Alamatti Dam. It is obvious that when all the rivers in the region will dry up in this drought prone area, the government will again try to tackle the solution by supplying the underground water.

	Source: Hindu Aug, 02, 2008