The
Indian state of Rajasthan is famous for its dry and arid climate.
Great Indian or Thar desert is actually a part of this state, where
the weather is obviously like any other desert of the world. Yet,
even in other parts of the state, it is quite common to see desert
like landscapes consisting of sun parched brownish lands, sand dunes,
small thorny shrubs, lots and lots of dust due to extremely scanty
rainfall. The weather in Rajasthan also happens to touch both
extremes. In the hot sultry summers, dust storms are fairly common
and in winter, a visitor can expect severe cold weather with biting
strong winds, again very typical of a desert weather.
Surveys
carried out by remote sensing satellites have found out that the
water table in Rajasthan is continuously sliding down, to lower and
lower levels with the rate of fall of about one foot per year. This
naturally affects the weather. In 2012, most of the state got
slightly deficient rains, which have affected the crops. It is
expected that there would be slight fall in crop production. To have
enough water for daily use is a pipe dream for many a Rajasthani
people.
Jodhpur
happens to be one of the famous cities from this state. This city is
many times called as 'Sun city' because of the abundant sun light
that falls on this city. It has many tourist attractions such as the
Jodhpur fort and palaces and is always crowded with tourists most
times of the year. Any traveller, who wants to visit this place would
be naturally expecting severe desert weather and general shortage of
water here for sure.
Most
surprisingly, water table levels in Jodhpur are actually on the rise.
Groundwater is coming up at the rate of 4 to 5 feet every year. The
water table today is only 2.4 meters below the ground level.
Jodhpur residents now say ; “Dig a tube well and get a lake.” In
Jodhpur's 'Kunjbihari temple,' the marble flooring of the temple is
now always submerged below 2 or 3 inches of water. Near the edges of
the marble tiles, one can observe small fountains sprouting little
jets of water. The houses and shops, that have basements, have to
pump out water collected in basements every day. A footwear shop
owner says that if he stops pumping out water, the basement would
be about 1.5 meter under water within a day. When there are power
outages, the store suffers immediate losses.
Never
in its long history, Jodhpur had such plenty of water around. The
city dwellers always talk about a myth that when the Maharaja had
broken ground for his new Mehrangarh fort in 1459, he showed
disrespect to an ascetic and asked that he be thrown out. The
ascetic, angry with the treatment received from Maharaja, had cursed
the Maharaja, that he would always have a drought in his kingdom.
Whether due to this curse or by the geographical reasons, the fact is
that Jodhpur has always faced water shortages. Jodhpur's abundance of
ground water when surrounding areas are suffering from water
shortages, has become a favourite subject for research now.
Prof.
Bhavanishankar Paliwal is the head of Geology in Jodhpur's 'Jai
Narayan Vyas University.' He gives two reasons for Jodhpur's abundant
ground water. The first reason for this excess water is the
'Rajasthan Canal System' built by Government of India in this region.
This canal diverts and carries out excess water of rivers in Punjab
towards Rajasthan. All the farmers now use canal water for
agriculture purposes and have stopped pumping out ground waters. The
second most important reason is the shape of geographical contour on
which Jodhpur sits. The ground under Jodhpur is shaped like a dish
with the result that all the under ground water from surrounding
regions actually rushes towards the city. Since there is no other way
for this water to flow, it is just rising up.
Jodhpur
local Government is in a real dilemma now regarding how to utilize
this excess water. The city gardens are being supplied with extra
water. There is a plan to pump out excess ground water to areas on
outskirts, where water shortages exist. However no one knows, when
these plans would be exucuted. Right now they are experiencing a
rarest of rare occurrence for Rajasthan; abundant availability of
water. Rajasthai people are known for their scanty use of water
resources, because water simple does not exist. Same Rajasthani
people in Jodhpur are now even using water in wasteful and
extravagant ways.
5
April 2013
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