Midweek Musings 8 28.01.2026 Ground Water Table is Common Property Resource.

 

A watershed created by Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre in Anantapur, in Andhra Pradesh where ground water has risen from 60  metres below the ground to 4 - 5 metres below the top soil, thanks to herculean efforts made by NGOs and the Government. © Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre. 

By Malini Shankar

Digital Discourse Foundation

Planning is central to Smart City governance. Given the iniquitous and unsustainable usage of resources in India today it is no wonder then that Human development is equally skewed. Just one example: While poverty remains unaltered the margin of the runaway millionaire is equally imbalanced in cities.

Few millionnaires are guzzling most of the resources driving the impoverished to further abyss. Skyscrapers and gated communities in urban areas embezzle most amount of resources, only sustaining poverty, not uplifting the downtrodden. It is quite literally the manifestation of unsustainable vertical growth as against inclusive horizontal economic growth. There was one instance of a top notch Intel Employee’s wife using bottled Bisleri water to shampoo their pet dog! Another gated community on Bangalore’s bursting seams has a swimming pool only for their spoilt pet dogs. Unimaginable in a country with subsidized food rations even in 2026.  Whereas the part time cook employed by the family was a homeless malnutritioned migrant worker sharing a plate meal with fellow gig workers.

One apartment complex or villament complex on one big plot of land of say 1 hectare in Bangalore Mangalore or Mumbai has anywhere from three to thirty bore-wells in our big metros. Sure it makes more sense to house more number of people instead of 10 – 12 people living off ancestral property in one bungalow spread over a hectare of prime real estate inside Bangalore City. But there is an urgent need to regulate unsustainable vertical growth.  None of these bore-wells are regulated in such gated communities or new age apartments.

Given that no permits are necessary or laws in this regard are practiced only in the breach, unregulated bore-well usage and unregulated ground water resources are depleting without measure. Imagine planning and building an apartment complex with 45 - 60 apartments each with 4 bathrooms and toilets for 5 people living in each apartment. All water used in these apartments is from the ground water table operated through bore-wells.  

Fresh water to wash cars and for the construction of cement concrete structures and to flush the toilet bowl – all uses are met with fresh ground water today. Worse, neither the people nor the planners are advocating respectful usage of fresh water. Even worse, no attempts to replenish the depleting ground water table are seen by urban dwellers. Reason: Policy makers are not making the right decisions; besides corrupt municipal administration “sustains” corruption by turning a blind eye to corruption. Even educated and erudite people are not aware of why or how to conserve fresh water resources.

Ground water table, rain water, well water, fresh water bodies like lakes and rivers, have to be used sustainably. Such sources of ground water are Common Property resources that rightfully belong to future generations. Instead we are polluting these resources of fresh water bodies. It is time to regulate the free access and usage of fresh water bodies for anything other than primary usage of water – cooking, drinking and bathing.

Planners must devise ways of regulating rain water for secondary purposes like watering plants and maybe washing cars. Recycled / grey water has to be used for manufacturing / construction etc. That way the stress on depleting fresh water from the Ground Water Table will be reduced.  That would be a ‘Smart Way” of using Common Property Resources for Sustainable Development Goals #SDG 6.

If we are not treating the ground water table with respect nor protecting the ground water table, millions of people of the future generations will be deprived of water security. Imagine harming the Planet Earth like this. Planet Earth is the only blue planet in the Solar System and the people of the Subcontinent are irresponsibly digging into the future reserves of the Planet without any accountability to the rest of the denizens of the Planet.

Time for politicians and policy makers wake up.