Groundwater Stories: Villagers Share Their Voices

India’s groundwater story is uniquely scripted by millions of farmers who independently operate and manage dug wells and tubewells throughout the country leading to increasing level of groundwater anarchy. Access to cheap pumps, subsidised electricity, changing crop patterns and increasing population have increased the tensions between groundwater supply and use that typify uncoordinated pumping of groundwater. Maintaining groundwater dependent rural livelihoods without further reductions in already depleted hard rock aquifers is a critical dilemma faced by the government and farming communities in rural India. Using the Dharta and Meghraj watersheds as examples to understand groundwater challenges, the focus of this Photovoice narrative, we share here the groundwater stories of ordinary people in this book. Literally viewed through the lens of individuals, the everyday stories told by villagers in this book introduce emotional and profound glimpses into the nexus of groundwater and livelihoods in rural India and the values held by villagers and their families. The photo essays also introduce humanness into the groundwater story in India and how it connects and contradicts with contemporary economics, politics, hydrology and agronomy in groundwater deliberations. The narratives presented are not simply opportunistic and arbitrary caricatures of Indian farming communities; these are carefully and systematically crafted photo-essays corroborated and endorsed by the individual story tellers. The systematic interaction with the individual story tellers increases the confidence that these are accurate reflections of the groundwater dilemma facing farming communities, and their ideas about the situation improvement. We hope this book will help you visualise how groundwater connects with villagers and influences their daily lives and understanding the complexity of managing and sustaining this invisible resource.