Groundwater Governance through Electricity Supply Management

Groundwater Governance Approach by Gujarat GovernmentBusiness & Government

Issue : Trinity of groundwater, electricity and irrigation

Since colonial times, providing irrigation was left to either government/administrative bodies or to rainsThat changed with emergence of diesel engines and tube well irrigation and now individuals took control of the irrigationIn 1950s 60s, with cheap electricity, farmers moved to electric water pumps extracting ground waterWhen UP experimented with flat rate of electricity(not pro-rata), it was observed that water markets bean to emerge and marginal farmer could also get access to water cheaply through these water marketsSoon, many states including followed the suit and made electricity provided at flat rate based on the horsepower ratings of the pumps used. This lead to over exploitation of underground water resourcesFlat rate of electricity marginal cost of extracting water almost zero Giving rise to selling water to small and marginalized farmers by tube well operators(big farmers) Enough water availability through rampant extraction of ground water Prices of water remained low helping small farmers at the cost of sustainabilityElectricity boards came under pressure In march 2002, Gujarat government accepted providing Rs 1100 cr subsidy given to farm use of electricity alone out of Rs 1300 cr total subsidy given to GEBIn 2001, major restructuring exercise was undertaken by Gujarat Government to improve status of loss making GEBIn 2001, only close to 400,000 hectors was irrigated through surface water sources, rest of 2400,000 hectors of land relied on groundwater sources for irrigationBackground

Possible Regulatory Solution/s?Efficient regulations can be defined as those where total benefits exceed total costs of regulation. Quoted from Wikipedia

Source : EM PPTs, Prof. Haripriya Gundimmeda

The Jyotigram Schemethe light of the village

METERING OF THE TUBEWELL : PAY PER USEINTELLIGENT RATIONING:SEPARATE FEEDER SUPPLYING POWER TO TUBEWELL

Electricity network before and after JGS

Impact on the stakeholdersWinners and Losers

Way ForwardHow to make it better

Can this model be applied to areas apart from agriculture and ground water?