Crisis of Fresh Water in South 24 Parganas District, West Bengal: Causes and Consequences

Abstract

Water scarcity occurs due to inadequacy of fresh water. It may be a physical problem initially having reflection on socio-economic profile of a community; but it affects productivity and prosperity of the people in a region. It is very difficult to overcome physical constraint of water scarcity as it depends on geo-hydrology, but proper management strategy is conducive for addressing the problem. South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal is located on the southern part of Ganges Delta. So the region is endowed with huge quantity of surface and ground water. But the typical geo-hydrology, sea water ingression, soil salinity and high content of soil clay create major problems. The management strategy adopted for this precious resource in this district is not up to the mark. So the local people have to suffer all the year round especially during the xeric period and because of waterlogging during the rainy season. In case of surface water, the volume of sweet water in river Hooghly and its tributaries are gradually decreasing and sea level is gradually rising; consequently the salinity in soil and water is gradually increasing. Among the two ground water aquifers, the upper one (70 to 160 m bgl) is brackish in nature, so it is not suitable for use. The depth of another ground water layer is more than 160 metre below the ground level almost all over the district. Lifting of this fresh water for drinking and irrigation is too costly. Administrative initiative has been taken to supply this fresh water for drinking purpose through installation of hand pumps or tube wells. Providing irrigation water free of cost is not cost effective and therefore most of the cultivators do not get water for irrigation harnessing the aquifer level due to lack of capabilities to install deep tube wells. The consequences of this scarcity is socio-economic in nature. Poverty, loss of agricultural and piscicultural productivity, absence of large scale industry, and high morbidity of various water-borne diseases are the direct effects of such scarcity of fresh water. The present paper is an endeavour to find out the causes of fresh water scarcity and to focus on its impact on the people and environment in the fragile ecosystems on the area under study.