Living off others

30/03/1997

The present Water requirement of Jodhpur (estimated population in 1991: 900,000) it 27 million gallons per day (mgpd). The city gets 22.4 mgpd. Surface water reservoirs account for 55-60 per cent of the water supply. The major reservoirs, Jawai and Hemavas. in addition to supplying water to Jodhpur, also serve the needs of Pali and Rohit towns and the villages of Pali and Jodhpur districts. Only 30 per cent of the water released from Jawai, and 50 per cent from Hemavas, go to Jodhpur city.

Dependence on groundwater has increased because of increasing shortage of surface water. Aquifers in and around Jodhpur cannot meet the requirements of the city. The public health engineering department Ground reality (PHED) has, therefore, drilled tubewells in villages such as Rampura, Manai, Teori and Balarwa, from where water is brought by pipelines and tankers. But this has led to overuse, resulting in declining water-table in these villages, with the average decline amounting to around 1.27 m per year. Rampura and Manai are cases in point. Of the 12 tubewells dug in Rampura and four in Manai, 10 in Rampura and two in Manai have dried up. In Rampura, the water level has gone down from nearly 15 m to 45 m.

With existing tubewells discharging decreasing quantities of water, and local agitations emerging against the drilling of more tubewells, water supply is now being augmented by private tubewells, open wells and baods. During 1987-88, when Jodhpur city faced a severe drinking water crisis, around 0.3-0.4 mgpd of water was brought from private wells in and around the city with the help of tankers.

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