RAINWATER HARVESTING IN PUNJAB: MITIGATING DECLINING WATER TABLES

The essential element of that is crucial for survival is water. But the 21st century has its own challenges; despite the progress it has made in making life smoother. The present water crisis, which is affecting the globe from various angles, requires urgent attention from academia for policy inputs and from the government for implementation. The Indian state of Punjab, which is dependent solely on agriculture, is finding it difficult to maintain the groundwater levels. They are dropping beyond the renewal capacity. In this tumultuous situation, the most appropriate solution that presents itself is to tap the falling precipitation. The present paper is an attempt to show how rainwater harvesting can work well in the state of Punjab. The various aspects related to water table depletion and its causes, such as overextraction for intensive agriculture, are examined. Then, the paper sheds light on historical methods for water conservation that were employed by our ancestors and explores how these traditional strategies can still be effective. The potential of traditional systems, combined with modern methods, is currently needed to correct the water balance of underground aquifers. Hence, all of that has to be seen in a holistic scenario, which this paper is an attempt towards.