NEW DELHI: A government report has found that nearly 60 per cent of Himalayan low water springs have dried up, have reached critical levels or have become seasonal. This has resulted in acute shortage of water for drinking and other domestic purposes for about 50 million people across 12 Himalayan states.
Also, most of north India’s river systems originate in the Himalayan region, either through glacial melt or as springs.
As per rough estimates, there are 50 lakh springs across India, out of which nearly 30 lakh are in the Indian Himalayan region alone. Attributing drying springs to increased water demand, changing land use patterns, seismic activity and ecological degradation, the report highlighted the lack attention from authorities as it found that most policies in the country have been ignorant about springs.
“Nearly 60 per cent of low-discharge springs that provided water to small habitations in the Himalayan region have reported a clear decline during the last couple of decades,” said the report on Inventory and Revival of Springs in Himalayas for Water Security submitted by the Department of Science & Technology (DST) to Niti Aayog.
The report said a major proportion of drinking water supply in the mountainous parts of Uttarakhand is spring-based, while in Meghalaya, all villages use springs for drinking and/or irrigation. The report highlighted a survey in Sikkim that found that water production has declined in half of all its springs, a dangerous sign that aquifers are depleting in a state which is almost entirely dependent on springs for drinking water.
“It becomes clear, therefore that any significant depletion in such spring flows at river origins will surely impact the flow of rivers. Spring management is slowly becoming a nationally pertinent problem, more important for the Himalayan population than ground water is for those living in the plains, and hence there is an urgent need to address these issues in a holistic and scientific manner,” emphasised the report.
The poor condition of springs is no surprise as most policies in the country have been ignorant about them and largely designed around the ‘development’ of water whether in form of large dams or tubewells.
The Niti Aayog working group recommended launching a holistic National Programme on Regeneration of Springs in the Himalayan Region entailing several short, medium and long-term actions, stating that it “might pave the way to overcome a majority of challenges” outlined by them.