Groundwater Regulation Bills in Haryana – A Call forGroundwater Conservation and Management forSustainable Irrigation Supply Services – Opportunitiesand Challenges

Over-reliance on groundwater resources for irrigation has helped achieving food/nutritional targets, at the expense of growing increased vulnerability of water resources in the northwest Indian states. In this reconnaissance study, we take Sonipat district, Haryana as a microcosm, to evaluate potential impacts of Haryana State Groundwater Management and Regulation Bill, 2008 and Haryana Preservation of Sub-Soil Water Act 2009, to understand future requirements of groundwater resources conservation/management. Well level groundwater level (GWL) information was obtained from the Central Groundwater Board’s archive, between 1996 and 2018, disaggregated by tehshils and growing seasons. Results indicated statistically significant (p<0.05) ‘shallowing’ of median GWLs in the Post-Bill periods (2009-2013 and 2014-2018) in the Sonipat and Ganaur tehshils, for all growing seasons, which might gratify the authorities about ‘success’ of the two Regulatory Bills to conserve groundwater. However, (i) presence of ‘outliers’ in Sonipat and Ganaur tehshils (deeper GWLs); (ii) dropping monitoring efficiency over years; and (iii) growing water resources vulnerability by predictive geostatistical modeling, question the above. For future conservation efforts, we urge the authorities to integrate three spheres: (1) Process-based Groundwater Research and Development; (2) Creating an Enabling Environment at Grassroots; and (3) Policy Appraisal and Institutional Changes.