Groundwater Depletion

            From the last few decades we are using the Drill Machines to drill tube wells anywhere, up to more than a required depth for groundwater exploitation. Due to uncontrolled deep drilling of the ground the first confining bed/aquitard/impermeable rock layers got damaged or punctured consequently the unlimited potable water is continuously flowing from unconfined aquifer to the lower confined aquifers and lower aquifer to upper aquifers thorough the millions of multi-aquifer holes made in the impermeable hard rock by the drill machines; resulting sudden rise in Groundwater Level in low land areas, whereas there is Groundwater Depletion in other high land areas.

        According to our scientists the depletion of the groundwater is due to water being pumped and consumed by human activities -- principally to irrigate cropland -- faster than the aquifers can be replenished by natural processes. Due to immense pumping for irrigation the groundwater depleting; then from where the excessive water is coming into the Sea raising it water level? We are lacking a study of common sense and saying that Sea water level is increasing due to melting of the Glaciers but there is still a question that how the water released from the glaciers reaches the Sea? If it is through the various aquifer channels then why there is a groundwater depleting? We really missed something and today nobody has studied yet about the direction of mobility of water when the impermeable layers are being punctured by the deeper tube well holes. According to the NASA: -

NASA Reported Ground Water level going down in North India

Beneath northern India’s irrigated fields of wheat, rice, and barley ... beneath its densely populated cities of Jaipur and New Delhi, the groundwater has been disappearing. Halfway around the world, hydrologists, including Matt Rodell of NASA, have been hunting for it.

According to Rodell and colleagues of NASA, it is being pumped and consumed by human activities -- principally to irrigate cropland -- faster than the aquifers can be replenished by natural processes.

"If measures are not taken to ensure sustainable groundwater usage, consequences for the 114 million residents of the region may include a collapse of agricultural output and severe shortages of potable water," said Rodell, who is based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Rodell and colleagues team analyzed six years of monthly GRACE gravity data for northern India to produce a time series of water storage changes beneath the region’s land surface. They found that groundwater levels have been declining by an average of one meter every three years (one foot per year). More than 109 cubic km (26 cubic miles) of groundwater disappeared between 2002 and 2008 -- double the capacity of India's largest surface water reservoir, the Upper Waingangā, and triple that of Lake Mead, the largest man-made reservoir in the United States.

"We don’t know the absolute volume of water in the Northern Indian aquifers, but GRACE provides strong evidence that current rates of water extraction are not sustainable," said Rodell. "The region has become dependent on irrigation to maximize agricultural productivity, so we could be looking at more than a water crisis" Said Rodell.

The loss is particularly alarming because it occurred when there were no unusual trends in rainfall. In fact, rainfall was slightly above normal for the period.

Figure 2

           According to the figure-2 the bottom of Tube Well is always opening in the confined aquifers instead of unconfined aquifer. We are exploiting the groundwater through the multi-aquifer tube well from the confined aquifers base for few hours in 24 hours a day, whereas due to millions of holes in the confining impermeable layers the potable water in the upper aquifers is also passing down continuously, which is many times than the water is pumped by the human for irrigation, resulting the water is also disappearing from the other wells of lower depth. Before the evolution of the drill machines; the water in the rivers and unconfined aquifer was moving towards the sea in the same upper structure of unconfined aquifer whereas, now the water from upper aquifers is flowing towards the sea after passing through the lower saline water confined aquifers. Water percolates in the unconfined aquifers from the river basin also passing down from the first coming holes of the tube wells which go into the sea via saline confined aquifers, results the Rise in the Sea Water Level.

           According to our scientists, the groundwater level falls due to a cone of depression created around the wells when there is a pumping of water from an tube well, which is correct, but it is also true that the cone of depression goes on increasing gradually due continuously passing of water from upper aquifers to the lower aquifers through the holes of tube well through the impermeable layers. The upper unconfined aquifer is a type of radiator for the Earth surface and the water disappeared from the unconfined aquifer acted as a coolant for our Earth’s Engine.

Figure-3 

          Let us assume a situation. It is well proof that the water pumping from the tube wells is from the saline water base; that is from confined aquifers below the impermeable layers. Assume for a while that water do not pass down through the holes in the impermeable layers made by multi-aquifer tube wells, then the percolated groundwater after irrigation should have collecting in the upper unconfined aquifer resulting lot of humidity and wetland with vegetation in abundance and then there would be no question of Global Warming due to humidity in the soil.