Farmers to fishermen, why Bengal’s water woes are heating up

Bjoy Marandi was devastated looking at his paddy field spread over five bighas on the bank of Saharajore River in Purulia’s Murguma village.

The field was to have turned golden yellow at this time of the year, considered to be the harvesting season for the crop.

“The field instead turned brownish,” Marandi said despairingly. “It’s a clear sign of water stress.”

The winter rainfall from January to February this year saw a deficit of around 84 per cent compared to the normal rainfall of 39.8 millimetres (mm). The shortfall was around 35 per cent in March when it received 17.1 mm of rainfall.

The deficit has seriously impacted the Boro rice cultivation in the Purulia village that is largely dependent on irrigated water from the rain-fed Saharajore, a tributary of Kangsabati.

The river has almost dried up due to a prolonged dry-spell this year, Marandi added. What is more worrisome is that this water distress is not limited to any particular region. Almost the entire state is facing the brunt of the dry spell.

Irrigation facilities in West Bengal are inadequate covering only around 51 per cent of the net sown area. This increases dependency on rain and groundwater.

Mritunjoy Ghosh, a farmer from Bankura, says the dry spell forces farmers to extract groundwater for irrigation of fields.

Apart from Boro rice, this is the season for cultivation of cash crops like groundnuts and vegetables, Ghosh said.

“To water one bigha of land, we need to run a submersible pump for three to three-and-half hours. This not only increases our input cost, but also depletes groundwater reserves,” said Ghosh, who is also a teacher.

While Ghosh could not give the amount of water that is extracted by running pumps, a typical agricultural 5-HP submersible pump can extract around 100-150 litres of groundwater per minute, further compounding the water crisis.

The problem has hit everyone from farmers to fishermen.

Drying up of waterbodies in northern Bengal left fisherman Sushil Das of Chathat-bansgaon village in the lurch.

“Water level in all the waterbodies in the area, including rivers, has receded significantly, posing a threat to our livelihoods,” Das said.

There is only two to three feet of water in most of the ponds in the area, whereas the minimum water level should be eight to ten feet for proper aquaculture, he pointed out.

“The scorching heat is causing the pond water to warm up,” Das said. “This leads to reduction in oxygen level in the water and also increased evaporation, endangering aquatic life.”

Fish hatcheries in the area are the worst affected, said Parthasarathi Das, a senior official of the fishery department.

Around 50,000 fishermen in the area alone are facing the crisis, department sources said.

Heating up the water demand

Occasional stormy weather that the state is likely to witness in the coming days will not help improve the situation much, according to the forecast of the Indian Meteorological Department.

Above normal number of heatwave days are likely to occur in several places, particularly in south Bengal, during April to June, as per the IMD forecast.

Considering the adverse weather condition, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that the summer vacation in schools will be preponed to begin from April 30 instead of mid-May.

The heatwave-like condition will further push the state, particularly the southern districts, into a severe water crisis. Already it has depleted water reserves in waterbodies and 15 reservoirs monitored by the Central Water Commission (CWC).

The combined live storage capacity of the 15 reservoirs is 18.83 billion cubic metres. The commission sources said already in April, the water-reserve has come down to 44 per cent of the total capacity. Decline in water level is observed in most of the state’s 7.47 lakh water bodies (as per the data of the India’s first water body census conducted in 2017-18), highest in the country.

This has raised concern about how to meet the growing water demand till the onset of Monsoon in June.

The unhappy happy numbers

Total water availability in West Bengal is estimated currently at 160.35 billion cubic meters (BCM), with 132.77 BCM of surface water and 27.58 BCM of groundwater. Whereas the demand is 90.54 BCM, a bulk of which, 72.48 per cent, is used for irrigation.

The above data that shows a surplus of 69.81 BCM, should not be seen as a very encouraging scenario as only 39.95 per cent of the surface water is useable.

Moreover, even the available water is not equitably distributed across the state.

A prolonged dry spell could potentially reduce surface water availability in the state by over 10 per cent, according to several recent studies.

This will lead to further increase in extraction of groundwater, which is already over exploited and fast depleting. About 47.01 per cent of the state’s total water needs is met by drawing groundwater, according to Central Ground Water Board’s data. Even in the Gangetic region, 84 per cent of its irrigation needs are taken care of by extracting groundwater.

This is catastrophic for a state with depleting water tables and high arsenic and fluoride contamination. Of the state’s 345 blocks, nearly 85 are affected with arsenic contamination and 45 with fluoride in drinking water.

The contamination can further increase due to depletion of groundwater.

A three per cent drop in the state’s groundwater level was found in a study titled Detection and Socio-Economic Attribution of Groundwater Depletion in India.

The situation is more alarming in certain southern parts of the state like Kolkata and South 24 Parganas district.

As per the last five yearly assessment done by the CGWB in 2021, Kolkata’s groundwater level declined by 18.6 per cent over the previous five-year period.

The researchers had warned then that the city could see a 44 per cent depletion by the end of 2025.

To ensure water security in the face of climate change challenges, the state government does not have any forward-looking strategy such as recycling seawater for drinking through the desalination process.

According to one Cambridge University study, Bengal ranks second in India's heat index vulnerability. The study indicates "extreme danger" due to heat waves intensified by climate change. More the heat wave, the greater would be the demand for water.

The distribution of demand

The problem of availability is further compounded by a poor distribution network.

West Bengal is still dependent on traditional strategies such as water distribution policies, improving water use efficiency, implementing water-saving measures, and promoting sustainable agricultural practices, along with addressing arsenic and fluoride contamination.

Even these strategies are not implemented properly.

Under the centrally sponsored scheme Jal Jeevan Mission, West Bengal could achieve 55.25 per cent of the target till April 5 even though its water distribution policy aims at ensuring 100 per cent permanent drinking water security, shifting from hand pumps to piped water supply schemes.

The state government blames the Centre for its poor performance.

Out of Rs 5,049.98 crore allocated to West Bengal under the project in 2024-25 financial year, the state received only Rs 2,524.99, which is just about half of the allotted amount, said an official of the PHE department.

The paucity of funds affected execution of the project that aims to supply clean drinking water through tap connections to every rural household, the official alleged.

The state government’s Jal Dharo Jal Bharo (Preserve Water, Reserve Water) scheme too is facing the brunt of the Centre’s alleged fund-choke policy and heat wave.

The scheme’s objective is to conserve rainwater by creating or restoring waterbodies and minor irrigation structures. Since the inception of the scheme in 2011, over 3.80 lakh waterbodies/structures have been created through jobs generated under the MGNREGA scheme, according to official sources.

The scheme, however, lost momentum as the Centre has stopped releasing MGNREGA funds for West Bengal since December 2021.

Water in many of these waterbodies too has shrunk due to the prolonged dry spell.

The officials further accused the Centre of bias in selecting the states for implementation of the Atal Bhujal Yojana (ATAL JAL), a central-funded scheme to facilitate sustainable groundwater management.

West Bengal is not included in the scheme implemented in 12 states.

Irked by severe drinking water crisis, residents in many parts of the state have been staging protests.

North Bengal Development minister Udayan Guha's motorcade was caught in a road blockade put up by residents of Aam Bari village in Cooch Behar last month demanding immediate resolution of their water woes.

A group of distressed residents of Purulia gheraoed the municipality office on March 26, demanding a permanent solution to the water problem.

Reports of such protests have started pouring in as the mercury is shooting up.