Description

Groundwater depletion problems are attracting increasing attention from policy makers, academicians and researchers in the country. Along with the problem of depletion, also growing are the debate over the energy pricing policies in the agriculture sector. The argument is that the subsidised electricity for agriculture pumping creates no incentive for farmers to use groundwater efficiently and leads to overexploitation of groundwater. As a result, indirect management using correct pricing of electricity has received top attention as a tool for ground-water management. The workshop on "Water Management: India's Groundwater Chal-lenge discussed a range of approaches for managing groundwater resources in the country. Some of the indirect management approaches such as clectricity pricing and water pricing as potential tool for managing groundwater resources.

This monograph contains 5 papers presented in the workshop which deal directly with potential impact of energy pricing on groundwater use. A summary of the key points discussed in the papers are covered in the preface by Marcus Moench. The papers by Mohanty & Ebrahim and Kumar & Patel, based on extensive field studies conducted in Saurashtra and Mehsana respectively argue that energy pricing doesn't have a major impact on water use. While The two papers follow, by Dr. Malik and Aroa & Kumar call for pricing to be used as a tool for managing groundwater resources. Finally, the paper by Nagraj and Chandrakanth estimates the willingness of farmers to pay pro-rata tariffs. Hope, this volume would help the field level NGOs, professional hydrologists and concerned government organisations get valuable insight into the viability of various supply based approaches and techniques currently being tried to address the groundwater depletion and scarcity problems in India.

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