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PDF
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Type:
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Conference Paper |
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Author:
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Patil, Siddharth; Prasad, Eklavya; Kaushal, Nikita; Upasani, Devdutt; Poddar, Pradeep |
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Conference:
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Sustaining Commons: Sustaining Our Future, the Thirteenth Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons |
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Location:
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Hyderabad, India |
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Conf. Date:
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January 10-14 |
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Date:
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2011 |
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URI:
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https://hdl.handle.net/10535/7394
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Sector:
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Water Resource & Irrigation |
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Region:
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Middle East & South Asia |
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Subject(s):
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common pool resources
groundwater
water supply
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Abstract:
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"North Bihar is an area in India prone to flooding by major rivers every year. In spite of the area having excess surface water, groundwater has been the main source of water for drinking and irrigation purposes. For years, shallow dug wells had been the principal mechanism of accessing groundwater in the region. In the past, dug wells were considered as a common source for access to groundwater and were maintained and managed by the community. Dug wells, in dispersed and sometimes large habitations, often do not technically qualify as the best access. The advent and promotion of hand pumps (‘Chapakals’ in local terminology) shifted the paradigm from a community access to an individual access. The chapakal technology enabled people access to groundwater in their own backyard, causing a deterioration of the community based mechanism of access to groundwater, i.e. dug wells. Megh Pyne Abhiyan (MPA) is an attempt by a group of Civil Society Organisations to understand and strategically develop village-based solutions of drinking water security in the flood-prone regions of the Kosi River System in Bihar. MPA’s effort of understanding groundwater situation in this highly dynamic setting, facilitated by ACWADAM’s technical inputs led to a comparison between the two variable mechanisms of groundwater access. Dug wells in most areas draw water from the shallow unconfined groundwater systems whereas the chapakals tap the deeper confined systems as well. Groundwater quality studies have shown that the water from the deeper aquifer has a greater potential to get contaminated with geogenic contaminants like iron and arsenic as compared to the shallow unconfined aquifers, tapped by dug wells. After nearly 20 years of dependence on these chapakals, with risks to community health, science and a strategic process of community- mobilisation have enabled communities to back-track to the more community-based approach of accessing groundwater, a Common Pool Resource, through dug wells."
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