Pradeep Naik

As a supply-side option to manage the depleting groundwater resources, many State Governments have made it mandatory to install rainwater harvesting system in any building with a roof area of 100 m2. An attempt has been made in this contribution to carry out feasibility study for rooftop rain water harvesting at the Grey Iron Foundry (GIF), Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India. Since the groundwater levels in the premises are in the order of about 2–3 m, scope for gravity recharge is limited nor there is sufficient natural subsurface space available for storage of the harvested rain water. However, underground and on-the-ground artificial tanks can be constructed to store the water for further use. The three buildings examined have a combined roof area of 21,927 m2 with a rain water availability of 21,784 m3 giving a recharge potential of about one m3 of rain water for every m2 of roof area. Groundwater in the premises contain high amount of fluoride and cannot be used for drinking purpo...

Groundwater over-exploitation leading to quality deterioration is an accepted fact, but limited work in this direction has been carried out in the Indian state of Punjab, where groundwater development is 172 %, the highest of any state in India. This paper makes an assessment of the groundwater quality in three administrative blocks of Rupnagar district in Punjab, in two of which groundwater exploitation has already reached about 200 %. Sixty groundwater samples were collected from shallow tubewells and hand pumps in premonsoon season (May, 2013) and were analyzed for major chemical parameters. Analytical results do not show any perceptible deterioration in groundwater quality; all the parameters are well within the permissible limits of the Indian standards, except for electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), Ca and Mg, which exceed the desirable limits in few groundwater samples. Abundance of ions in the water samples is in the order: HCO3− > Cl− > SO42− > NO3− and Mg2+ > Ca2+ >N a+ > K+. Data plotted on the US Salinity Laboratory diagram show that most of the samples fall in the category of C2S1 and C3S1, which makes the groundwater suitable for irrigation in all types of soil. Other chemical indices such as % sodium (%Na), sodium absorption ratio (SAR), and residual sodium carbonate (RSC) also show that almost all samples are fit for irrigation purposes. This work thus concludes that groundwater quality deterioration due to irrigation has not yet been well perceived in the state of Punjab, even if much of its groundwater resources have been over-exploited. However, the paper warns against indiscriminate drilling and over-exploitation of the groundwater resources for their long-term usage and sustainability.

This case drew national attention in 2018. About 100 people died and more than 300 hospitalized in a span of few years in a village of 1200 people in a tribal stretch in central India. Medical teams visiting the area reported severe renal failure and blamed the local eating and drinking habits as causative factors. This human health assessment based on geochemical investigations finds nitrate (NO3−) and fluoride (F−) pollution as well in village’s groundwater. Both deterministic and probabilistic techniques are employed to decipher the contamination pathways and extent of contamination. Source apportionments of NO3− and F− and their relationship with other ions in groundwater are carried out through chemometric modelling. Latent factors controlling the hydrogeochemistry of groundwater too are explored. While hazard quotients ($$HQ$$ HQ ) of the chemical parameters ($$HQ_{{{\text{NO}}_{3}^{ - } }}$$ H Q NO 3 - and $$HQ_{{{\text{F}}^{ - } }}$$ H Q F - ) identify ingestion as the promi...

ABSTRACT The present volume consists of six broad topics with the already chosen themes as detailed in the seminar brochure. The broad topics with the selected themes are as follows: 1. General Aspects of Rainwater Harvesting (i) Scope for rainwater harvesting (ii) Artificial recharge of aquifers in urban setups (iii) Appropriate techniques in rainwater harvesting 2. Case Studies on Rainwater Harvesting Practices (i) Performance evaluation of the rainwater harvesting schemes and case studies (ii) Environmental impact assessment of the rainwater harvesting schemes 3. Appropriate Technologies in Rainwater Harvesting (i) Instrumentation and designs in rainwater harvesting (ii) Suitable industrial products for rainwater harvesting practices 4. Water Management in Industries (i) Water conservation measures in industries (ii) Recycling and reuse of water 5. Socioeconomic Aspects of Rainwater Harvesting (i) Roles of municipalities, NGOs and city dwellers in water management and rainwater harvesting (ii) Public awareness on rainwater harvesting 6. Future Directions (i) Policy issues on rainwater harvesting and water management (ii) Role of Government in the promotion of rainwater harvesting Complete independence has been given for expression of ideas. However, limited editing has been done for few articles which did not conform to standard English or otherwise without changing the meaning the original sentences. Utmost care has been taken to include all papers in the way they have been presented by the authors. However, because the papers were copied from the soft copies provided by the authors in the form of CDs/floppies/emails, mistakes or omissions, if any, are sincerely regretted. Also, a standard format for all papers could not be followed. The second volume will be selected out of the papers presented in this seminar. The papers will be peer-reviewed by a team of learned reviewers, and the authors may be asked to modify their papers to the satisfaction of the editorial committee. Thanks are due to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, New Delhi for its sponsorship to bring out this special publication. Information as to which papers have been selected for this special publication will be communicated to the first or corresponding authors of the presented papers after few days of the completion of the seminar. I hope that the delegates will have an excellent time at Nagpur, and their participation at the RAINHARVEST 2006 will be fruitful. Dr. Pradeep K. Naik Editor

Nagpur district represents a complex hydrogeological set up with the geological formations ranging in age from Recent to Archean. Rainfall data for the past 100 years show a declining trend. Ground water levels are declining in most parts not only due to poor saturation of aquifers due to scanty rainfall, but also due to desaturation of aquifers due to greater exploitation of the ground water resources. The objective of this study is to present an overview of the ground water conditions of Nagpur district and suggest few remedial measures to lessen the ground water scarcity. Areas feasible for ground water development and suitable ground water extraction structures have been identified. Emphasis has been laid upon the construction of water conservation structures and artificial recharge of aquifers at suitable locations. Scope for command area development has also been discussed. Suggestions have been given for the control of pollution and adoption of rainwater harvesting schemes in...

The main objective of this article is to discuss the fundamentals of the arsenic occurrences in terms of its chemical forms and mobility and present a brief review of the existing processes for remediation of arsenic contamination in ground water. Both ex-situ (on surface) and in-situ remediation processes have been discussed. Ex-situ processes include precipitation, adsorptive, ion exchange, and membrane processes. In-situ processes include immobilization of arsenic by sorption, chemical oxidation and reduction processes, arsenic biotransformation, and arsenic hyperaccumulation in plants. Depending on the magnitude of problems and budget provisions, a suitable method, ex-situ or in-situ, could be chosen for remediation purposes. Natural attenuation (NA) of arsenic through in-situ processes in soils and groundwater is a very convenient technique, but its performance depends on the prevailing physicochemical and biological processes, which require conducive environmental conditions. ...

With the rise in population and development in technology, the demand on ground water has increased in recent years not only for drinking purposes, but also for the industrialization and agricultural uses. Many parts of the country are already over-exploited, and there is rampant mining of ground water. No account is, however, clearly available on the sectoral uses of the ground water resources. This paper discusses this particular topic and estimates the actual proportions of ground water resources utilized for domestic, industrial and agricultural purposes in Raver Taluka (Tehsil/Block), an over-exploited Taluka in the alluvial terrain of the Tapi River basin in the Jalgaon District of Maharashtra State. The economy of Raver Taluka is mainly dependant on agriculture, especially banana cultivation. Banana consumes a large volume of water, and the Taluka has been depleted of its vast ground water resources once abundantly available in the alluvial aquifers. Out of the 84.36 MCM of u...

The concept of water harvesting, especially rainwater harvesting, has been in existence for over five thousand years, since the early development of settlements and agriculture. More recently, it has gained prevalence amongst scientific and development communities after research was conducted into its use across Australia and America in the mid-twentieth century. These rainwater harvesting structures tended to provide drinking water for livestock, but the idea has broadened to include the provision of irrigation water for agriculture, of water for domestic purposes, and of a clean and safe supply of drinking water. This collection of papers builds on research into water harvesting from around the world in the last fifty years, from places as diverse as Israel, Germany, Australia, America, Pakistan, China, Japan, Singapore and India. A process of collecting and storing any form of water, water harvesting is crucial in that it provides a source of water at the point of consumption. As...

The Western Ghats hills ranges are one of the major physiographic provinces of the Indian sub-continent running for a distance of 1600 km parallel to the Indian West Coast with an average elevation of 1000-1300 m above mean sea level. These hills are bestowed with heavy precipitation (4000-6000 mm/yr), but the headwater basins coalescing these hills retain very small quantity of groundwater due to poor surface slope conditions. The narrow valleys in these hills offer ample scope for surface water development, and several medium to major irrigation projects have already been constructed in these areas with well-defined canal network. These developments have truly boosted agricultural productivity in the region, but at the same time they have also brought an economic disparity between the command (areas irrigated by these canals) and non-command areas. Water logging problems are also increasingly seen in low-lying areas. While these problems are mainly due to poor groundwater manageme...

The Western Ghats of the Indian Peninsula is dotted with innumerable springs, many of which are utilized for local water supply and many flow unnoticed unrecognized of the vast potential they possess for the service of the humankind. An attempt has been made to study these springs in the Koyna River basin, a headwater basin, that characteristically represents the Western Ghats region in Maharashtra State. The objective is to explore the possible use of these springs for the regeneration of forests in the Western Ghats, once a thickly forested tract, but now a barren piece of denuded land. Close examination of 121 springs reveals that their origins are highly dependent on the lithological characters of different basaltic flow units and the existing terrain physiography. Their discharges vary between 2-432 m3/d in the winter and 1-216 m3/d in the summer. Although rainfall, its seasonality, and areas of recharge play vital roles in the recharge of these springs, their yields are also c...

The Western Ghats of the Indian Peninsula in Maharashtra State are dotted with innumerable springs. Closer examination of these springs in the Deccan terrain of Koyna River basin, India reveals that the yields of these springs are controlled by lithological variations and hydraulic characteristics of their source-aquifers. Currently, these springs are classified on the basis of schemes defined for other terrains. However, since the emergence of ground water in the form of springs is largely controlled by the lithology and the resulting water-bearing properties of the formations, a new classification scheme is proposed that classifies the springs on the basis of their source-aquifers. These springs are the only source of sustenance for drinking and irrigation purposes in the hilly tracts. However, they are under constant threat of extinction in recent years due to extensive human interference. An analysis has been made of the role of springs in the Western Ghats, and ways have been d...

It is difficult to estimate baseflow from streamflow hydrograph in a river with modified and/or regulated streamflow. The paper presents a unique method that estimates baseflow in the Koyna River, India where streamflow is not only artificial due to intermittent reservoir releases from the Koyna Dam, but also is heavily extracted making baseflow estimation difficult by the conventional methods. The water use approach presented in this paper reveals that if the quantum of water withdrawn artificially from the river is quantified, the baseflow component could easily be estimated with the help of the reservoir releases in the upstream and the streamflow at the mouth of the river.

Most hydrologic trends result from a combination of climatic and human influences, and analyses of hydrologic changes often do not differentiate these factors, despite the obvious relevance of this distinction. Here, we separate human and climate influences on the Columbia River hydrologic cycle and sediment discharge. Human influences include water withdrawal for irrigation, flow regulation, reservoir manipulation, mining and deforestation. The Columbia’s streamflow and sediment discharge are strongly correlated with large-scale climate patterns, particularly the ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) and PDO (Pacific Decadal Oscillation). The mean annual average Columbia River virgin flow at The Dalles has decreased ~16.5%, 8-9% due to climate change and 7-8% due to water withdrawal for irrigation. Climate impacts on the sediment discharge are larger than on streamflow because sediment discharge increases more than linearly with flow. Total sediment and sand transports have decreased...

... 1 Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Jaypee University of Information Technology, Waknaghat, PO: Dumehar Bani, Solan 173 215, Himachal Pradesh, India 2 Cytogenetics Laboratory, Regional Plant Resource Centre, Bhubaneswar 751 015 ... 1990, Frankel et al. ...