IndiaÂ’s first holistic water resource management system

Neer Jaal is an Information Communication Technology enabled water resource management system for grassroots communities. It is about collation of ground water related content and information and management of water resources with the available information. The Neer Jaal software facilitates generating, storing and making public the water related information in a village. The core objective of Neerjaal is to contribute towards managing scarce water resources across communities in India. Alarming groundwater depletion in India Managing and safeguarding ground water has become a critical challenge for sustainable development in India. There are alarming stories to tell that India is depleting its groundwater at an alarming pace over the last few decades. The country is running through its groundwater so fast that scarcity could threaten the whole South Asian region. This is at a time when the countryÂ’s population is soaring past one billion and there is the urgent need to boost agricultural production. There are reports that Indians are tapping their groundwater faster than nature can replenish it. Indian surveyors have divided the country into 5,723 geographic blocks. More than 1,000 are considered either overexploited, meaning more water is drawn on average than is replenished by rain, or critical, meaning they are dangerously close to it. Across Rajasthan State up to 80% of the groundwater blocks are in danger of running out. In Punjab 79% of groundwater blocks are classified as overexploited or critical; in neighboring Haryana, 59%; and in southern tropical Tamil Nadu, 46%. The situation is such that even fertile, rain-drenched pockets of the country are not immune. Reasons cited for water resource depletion are commercial harvesting of ground water as well as rising demand for water for irrigation. The catastrophic impact is projected in dry farmlands, dying trees, and dwindling ability to farm and feed the burgeoning population and the animals. The crisis has been exacerbated by good intentions gone awry and due to poor water resource management planning by governments and water management and monitoring agencies. Saving groundwater is a must If groundwater can be thought of as a nationÂ’s savings account for dry, desperate drought years, then saving this scarce natural resource is must. This can be done through proper planning of ground water resources, its availability, the demand and supply estimation and sustainable use of it. The need is to evolve out effective water resource management process as per the need and available ground water resource. Thus time has come to think how to preserve our one of the scarce natural resources. Preservation is all the more important to facilitate India emerge as a water-just nation with equal rights, access for all and equal responsibility for water conservation. Neer Jaal: Facilitating water resource management Neer Jaal is IndiaÂ’s first attempt to evolve out a holistic water resource management system using Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools. The Neer Jaal software enables effective ground water management with effective participation from the local community keeping in mind the hard facts about groundwater information. The Neer Jaal application is presently made applicable looking after three basic ground water resource structures available in the rural areas: Hand pump, well and tanka (rain water reservoirs). Neer Jaal Stakeholders The stakeholders of Neer Jaal water resource management system cut across public and private players. The community is the prime stakeholder. The support of the community is critical in getting all vital water related information and data and their timely updation. The government is an important stakeholder consisting of water ministry, national water agencies, irrigation departments, agriculture and weather ministries. Private stakeholder includes national and international development organisations, local level development NGOs and academic institutions. Neer Jaal is useful for anyone who wants to provide any water resource information i.e. problem wise as well as for those who want to analyse the available information. Source: Digital Empowerment Foundation

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