Assessing groundwater resource and its sustainability in drought prone area of India

Abstract

In semi arid Maharashtra State of India, the availability of groundwater is extremely uneven both in space and time. It is due to the uneven distribution of rainfall and variations in geology. In this background, understanding ground water situation and its uses is very important for its better management. Therefore, the study aims to assess the groundwater resource through the use of indicators. Dhubdhubhi watershed in drought prone southern Maharashtra state is selected as the study area. Seven different groundwater indicators are calculated under three aspects: renewable groundwater resource for utilization, importance of groundwater for use and contemporary state of groundwater development. Indicators obtained under these aspects reveal current renewable water resources, uses and development in the watershed. The results show that the groundwater development in the watershed as a whole is sustainable. However, in two mini- watersheds abstraction exceeds recharge questioning the sustainability at local scale.