The clock is ticking on Punjab’s water crisis

Punjab is facing a groundwater crisis of gigantic proportions, threatening the very sustainability of its civilisation. According to the latest report by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), even the last drop of usable groundwater in Punjab shall finish in just 14 years.

It is the duty of the current political executive, planners and civil society to ensure that the groundwater is preserved not only for the present generation living on this part of the globe but also for future generations who will inhabit the region.

The current scientific data shows that Punjab extracts 28 million acre feet (MAF) of water from the womb of mother earth each year while only 17 MAF is replenished through rainfall and the state’s three perennial rivers. This imbalance has led to a dangerous depletion rate of about half a metre per year, bringing Punjab closer to desertification.

One of the most significant reasons for this overexploitation is the “energy-water-food" nexus in Punjab. Since the energy supplied by the government to farmers for pumping out water to produce food, especially rice, is free, it becomes its added responsibility to take practical measures to address this crisis before Punjab turns into a barren wasteland.

Additionally, it is also imperative to note that not only is water depleting at a much faster rate but it is also being extracted from deeper layers of earth, containing dangerous heavy metals and nitrate, making it unfit for use by humans and animals.

Therefore, it is high time the government took the following urgent measures to ameliorate the situation.

1. Fix paddy transplanting date to June 20. Although scientists recommend aligning paddy transplantation with the arrival of monsoons, keeping in view the realistic situation, the government should implement a phased transplantation schedule starting from June 20 due to these reasons:

a) The farmers are now cultivating mainly the short-duration paddy varieties which take 90-100 days to mature with the same yield as the pre-2009 situation when the varieties being cultivated were long-duration ones, taking 130-140 days to mature.

b) Punjab was the first state in the country to enact a progressive law in 2008 to regulate the date of sowing of paddy with a view to conserving and saving its groundwater. The date of paddy transplantation was fixed at June 10 under this law. The date was shifted to June 15 in 2014 and is continuing as such since then, with minor variations in dates.

The farmers, by and large, have adjusted their kharif agronomic practices in the last 17 years as per to this law, called ‘The Punjab Preservation of Sub Soil Water Act 2009’. As per a report of Department of Agriculture, Government of Punjab, the annual decline in the water table was 75 cm before 2009. It reduced to 40 cm later due to effective implementation of the Act.

c) As per the latest reports, water levels in all three reservoirs of Punjab — the Bhakhra Dam, Ranjit Sagar Dam and Pong Dam — are 52 per cent below normal as compared to last year. Punjab gets about 14.50 MAF of water from these reservoirs, mainly for paddy cultivation. Therefore, less canal water shall be available this summer season for irrigation, which will put additional pressure on groundwater for paddy crop. It takes about 4,000 liters of water to produce one kg of paddy. Thus, any deficit in the supply of canal water is bound to be met by farmers by extracting groundwater. d)The India Meteorological Department has forecast above normal temperature and extended heatwave episodes this summer, especially in June. Therefore, paddy transplanted in June or before shall require much more water to withstand the heat stress. This calls for delaying paddy transplantation to the later days of June, closer to arrival of monsoon rains.

e) Paddy transplanted in late June matures by early October, coinciding with favourable harvesting conditions. Early transplantation leads to harvesting during the monsoon’s late phase in September, exposing paddy grains to heavy rains, gusty winds and high humidity. This results in marketing pangs for the farmers as even the Government of India mandates paddy purchase operations from October 1.

2) Ban long-duration PUSA 44 variety: PUSA 44 and its variants (peeli PUSA and Doger PUSA) are not only water-guzzling on account of their long duration but they also contribute to pollution because of their heavy residue mass. Punjab should ban their cultivation by advising the farmers in advance and directing state procurement agencies to not procure the grains of this variety.

3) Comprehensive policy to recharge groundwater: Punjab extracts about 11 MAF more groundwater than it recharges annually with an unsustainable extraction rate of 165 per cent compared to the internationally recognised safety limit of 75 per cent. Therefore, the state must formulate and implement a comprehensive groundwater recharging policy to increase replenishment beyond the extraction rate. A combination of artificial and natural recharging techniques should be deployed with active public participation.

4) Promoting crop diversification: Cotton and maize once dominated the kharif landscape in Punjab. However, unfavourable crop production and the marketing milieu of these crops made the farmers shift to paddy, which is not only production risk-neutral but also has assured MSP and guaranteed market clearance. Consequently, the area under paddy increased from 50 lakh acres in 1990 to 80 lakh acres last year placing extreme stress on ground water resources.

Encouraging alternative kharif crops on 20 lakh acres could significantly restore the groundwater balance. As a starting point, the government should mandate alternative crops in those 11 blocks where water extraction exceeds horrendous level of 300 per cent of recharge.

Agriculture in Punjab is at a crossroads. Despite the annual budget of Rs 14,524 crore allocated for agriculture, the pain pangs of this sector have not abated and the groundwater crisis continues to worsen. Without an urgent policy shift and concrete action, Punjab’s agrarian economy and environmental stability are at grave risk. The time to act is now.

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