Globally, it is estimated that around 3.2 billion people live in agricultural areas with high to very high-water shortages or scarcity, of whom 1.2 billion people – roughly one-sixth of the world’s population – live in severely water-constrained agricultural areas (FAO, 2020). Per capita availability of water in India has been declining alarmingly and West Bengal is no exception. Also, ground water exploitation has become unsustainable in many areas of the country. In this context, it is necessary to understand the status of ground water in three blocks of West Bengal, two in Hooghly district (Chanditala-I and Jangipara) and one in Bankura district (Barjora), which are respectively critical, semi-critical and safe blocks. These blocks are within the command area of the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC), the irrigation system under which is being revamped with support from the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Development Bank) and the World Bank and the AIIB desired to get the community level perspectives of climate resilient water management for making the project intervention more effective. The selected blocks are Barjora in Bankura district and Chanditala I & Jangipara blocks in Hooghly district.

These three blocks are also part of a few blocks which have been taken up for rolling out Jal Jeevan Mission, the national flagship programme for providing access to safe water in the premises of all rural households. Sustainability of the source is one critical requirement for ensuring domestic water supply. The rolling out of Jal Jeevan Mission as well as improving water management at the user level are being carried out by SIGMA Foundation with support from UNICEF. Climate Resilient Water Management (CRWM) is an important area to strengthen under the UNICEF supported project.

In this background, the current study looks at the status of groundwater, which is one of the most important fresh water sources used for all domestic purposes as well as agricultural fields. The objective is to conduct a situational analysis of the groundwater levels, the factors which are associated with its availability and the lessons that may be drawn to plan interventions for CRWM.

Data for this study has been acquired from various sources. Groundwater level data has been downloaded from the India WRIS website which is published by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and also other associated data such as evapo-transpiration, soil moisture content, rainfall, etc. Population data and socio-economic data has been taken from the Census respectively. Apart from this, satellite imagery has been used to map the land-use and land-cover changes over time to establish the linkages between groundwater level and vegetation/forest cover, cultivating land and built-up area.

It was observed that the status of criticality of the blocks have changed over the years. Among the three blocks, Chanditala I and Jangipara have moved from safe (2008-09) to semicritical (2013), the former shifting to critical status (2016-17), while Barjora remained safe during this time period. It can be said that although climate change is taking place and causing higher variability in rainfall pattern, frequency and intensity of extreme events, especially in the last decades, the rate of population growth and built-up area expansion is far greater and leading to rapid depletion of sub-surface water. Hooghly having much higher potential for storing groundwater due to its nature of aquifer and rainfall amount, however, is in an alarming state due to excessive drafting of groundwater.

Key Findings: a) Depth of groundwater is lower in areas of hard rock aquifers than areas with alluvial aquifers. b) Depth of groundwater is significantly determined by population growth and is positively associated with it. c) Rainfall amount is not linearly associated with groundwater recharge but depend on a number of other factors such as land -use characteristics, evapo-transpiration and soil moisture content. d) Areas with hard rock aquifers have less groundwater level fluctuations (both annually and seasonally) and also show a better status than areas with alluvial aquifers from which it is easier to abstract water by using pumps. e) Amount of vegetation cover has witnessed increase in Barjora block of Bankura district, whereas built-up area and cultivated land has increased in Chanditala I and Jangipara blocks in Hooghly district respectively, which has adversely affected the groundwater table. f) Future sustainability of groundwater resources is found to be better in Bankura district than in Hooghly due to greater vegetation coverage and hard lateritic soil.