Jal Shakti Ministry plans network of groundwater sensors to monitor quality, contamination levels

A centralised network would help “provide groundwater forecasts to farmers that would be useful for sowing, and updated advisories that can influence groundwater extraction policies”, says Subodh Yadav of the Department of Water Resources.

The Jal Shakti Ministry is working on an ambitious plan to deploy a vast network of groundwater sensors that will continuously relay information on groundwater levels as well as the degree of contamination down to the taluk level. Currently, such information is only measured a handful of times a year and communicated via reports of the Central Groundwater Board.

Establishing a network that will continuously measure groundwater quality, feed it into a centralised network such as that of the National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC) and available for monitoring would make groundwater visible much the same way as air quality, meteorological variables –air pressure, moisture, precipitation – is now, Subodh Yadav, Joint Secretary, Department of Water Resources told The Hindu.

“We can potentially provide groundwater forecasts to farmers that would be useful for sowing, and updated advisories that can influence groundwater extraction policies by States,” he added. “Except for information on water flow governed by international treaties, most of this information will be publicly accessible.”

The Central Groundwater Board currently relies on a network of about 26 thousand groundwater observation wells that require technicians to manually measure the state of groundwater in a region.

Under the new initiative, around 16,000-17,000 digital water level recorders will be connected to piezometers in the wells. Piezometers measure groundwater levels, the recorders will transmit the information digitally.

In the next three years, the CGWB aims to increase its network from the existing 26,000 to about 40,000. When combined with similar networks possessed by other institutions – State bodies, agriculture and meteorology departments – India will have about 67,000 digitally recordable units to monitor groundwater dynamics.

“This is a continuous process and we will have to keep increasing our monitoring for better higher resolution data,” said Mr. Yadav.