Groundwater demand management at local scale in rural areas of India: a strategy to ensure water well sustainability based on aquifer diffusivity and community participation

Watershed development programmes provide an opportunity for sustainable management strategies, although currently, they remain largely 'supply-side' mechanisms of water resources development. Hydrogeological conditions, community participation and status of groundwater usage are important in evolving strategies on 'demand-side groundwater management. Neemkheda aquifer is a typical low-storage, low-hydraulic conductivity aquifer from a watershed in the dryland regions of Madhya Pradesh State of central India. A shallow unconfined aquifer, it consists of an upper coarse, calcareous sandstone unit underlain by a fine-grained sandstone unit. A `well commune' of seven wells is poised to test the concept of joint groundwater management, wherein wells are mechanisms of tapping a common water source, the Neemkheda aquifer. The strategy for systematic groundwater management in the Neemkheda well commune is based upon the relationship between Transmissivity (T) and Storage coefficient (S), i.e. aquifer diffusivity, and its variation within the aquifer. Wells within a high diffusivity domain tend to dewater more quickly than wells within a low diffusivity domain. A well-use schedule during the dry season, based upon aquifer diffusivity forms the basis of the groundwater management concept. The distribution of local aquifer diffusivities governs the relationship between local and regional aquifer depletion times and forms the basis of the groundwater management exercise being proposed for the Neemkheda aquifer.