ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

OF GROUND WATER USAGE

PRESENTATION

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 WHAT IS GROUND WATER?
• Water laying under the
surface of the ground and
contained within the space
between rocks is known as
ground water.
• Ground water’s erosive
action on permeable rocks
results in the formation of
underground streams,
rivers, and caves.
GROUND WATER

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 GROUND WATER USAGE IN INDIA
Out of 275 billion cubic meters of available ground
water resource, the annual annual elaborate is only 135
billion cubic meters.
75% of ground water is used in irrigation use of urban
and rural areas.

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 EFFECTS TO USING GROUND WATER
Over exploitation and excessive pumping either locally pr
large areas to meet increasing water demands.
Non-availability of other water sources, therefore sole
dependence is on ground water.
Unreliability of municipal water supplies in terms of
quantity and timings, driving people to find their sources.
Discuss of ancient means of water consersition like village
ponds, percolation tanks and therefore higher pressure on
water development.
Rising sea levels may lead to increased saline intrusion of
coastal and island aquifers.
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EFFECTS TO USING GROUND WATER
Increased rainfall intensity may lead to more runoff
and less recharge.
Changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration will
influence recharge.
Changes in neutral vegetation and crops will influence
recharge.
Increased flood events may affect groundwater quality
in alluvial aquifers.
Changes in soil orgenic carbon may effect the
infiltration properties above aquifers.
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 DISADVANTAGES
An uncontrolled use of bore well technology has to lead the
extraction of ground water at such high rate that often recharge
is not sufficient. The causes of low water availability in many
regions are also directly linked to the reducing forest cover and
soildegredation.
The solid, liquid and gaseous waste that is generated, if not
treated properly, result in pollution of the environment ; this
affects ground water too due to the hydraulic connectivity in
the hydrological cycle.
Quality of ground water is concerned many states in the
country have been identified as endemic to flourisis due to
abundence in naturally occurring fluoride bearing minerals.
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 DISADVANTAGE
Similarly high levels of
arsenic in ground water
have been reported in the
shallow aquifers in some
districts of west bengal,
which are harmful to
human health.
Certain places in haryana,
gujarat and andhra pradesh
were also found to have
dengerously high levels of AQUIFRE C/S
mercury.
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 HOW TO SAVE GROUND WATER?
Natural and induced recharge of the aquifier
 Artificial recharge by following methods:
Surface recharge
Water harvesting
Recharge wells
Check dams
Underground dams
Dug wells
Recharge shaft with bore wells

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 HOW TO SAVE GROUND WATER?
Renovation of forests tanks
in draught prone regions
will have a significant
impact on wildlife and
forest cover.
Temple tanks need to be
renovated and urban
wetlands protected. All this
will contribute to rise in
ground water level and
reduction in salt water
ingress. TANK IN FRONT OF TAMPLE

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 PURPOSE OF ARTIFICIAL RECHARGE
Steps for saving water to ground:
1. To maintain or augment natural ground water as an economic
resource.
2. To combat adverse conditions such as progressive lowering of
ground water levels, unfavorable salt balance and costal
(saline) water intrusion.
3. To store underground the surface water imported from other
basins.
4. To provide treatment and storage for reclaimed waste water for
possible reuse.
There is a recharge well in next slide:

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RECHARGE WELL

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 CONCLUSION
Ground water is ideal means of storage of surface water
which can obviate space-time unevenness with efficient
artificial recharge methods and highly improved
pumping techniques. Recharging wells are increasingly
being used for liquid waste disposal for recycling and its
subsequent reuse. This is boon with prospect of water
scarcity confronting us increasingly. In short ground
water storage augmented by artificial recharge and
served with efficient PUMPS in a solution to water
conservation and water recycling which will be in
increasing demand in water deficient 21st century.
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THANK YOU
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