At a time when the country is looking to harvest each drop of water, considering the increase in the requirements for various purposes, one of the important aspects of water conservation, the data, has not yet caught the attention of the interested parties.
The recent study of the Sattva Knowledge Institute (SKI) said that combining open data ‘from top to bottom with’ ascending ‘citizen science is a promising path to solving water data gaps in India. Given the high cost of the collection of high resolution data, it is imperative today that the collection of water data is simplified, focuses on the cost and focuses on the community.
He said that the collaboration action between the scientific community, corporations, farmers, local communities and governments have the potential to reduce the imminent water crisis in India today.
Ski performed a landscape analysis of the open data platforms and spoke with water conservation experts and water management programming to understand the water data crisis.
Why water data?
On the need to focus on better access to the data, the report says the annual investment of Indian corporations in water conservation of 2016-17 to 2021-22 averaged ₹ 265 million rupees. In some cases, 50-60 percent of the total water conservation investment between corporations is intended to collect water data to evaluate the risks of the sub-basin and basin level.
The data provides the basis on which interested parties in the entire industry, government and civil society can understand the geographical propagation and the scale of the crisis, and make critical decisions regarding water conservation efforts and agriculture. The data collection for water is exhaustive and there is a great cost to coordinate the data in multiple sources, he said.
Ski analyzed 13 platforms and decision support systems with open data for water risk assessment in India. Or they, five platforms had open data in a sub -basin, district or village level.
Current scenario
The current open water data ‘from top to bottom’ add data at the administrative level, such as the limits at the district level instead of the basin (river drainage area). Due to the trans-united nature of the rivers, the estimation of the water crisis of the sub-basin and basin level requires assumptions and models that experts often find a factory factory.
The study indicated that critical data in the upper area of aquifers are missing. Data on groundwater tables, to measure how much recharge there are in the upper area of the aquifer, as well as estimates or side recharge are not currently available at the sub -basin level.
Referring to the non -reported water consumption data, he said that the lack of the “number of personal tubes or needle holes”, partly for large farmers and industries with unregistered holes, leads to inacterative or total water.
Citing an interview with the senior hydrologist, Bipplob Chatterjee, said the data gaps often lead to a scenario or ‘planning for the lowest possible result’ focusing on interventions that do not restore the base flow of long -term aquifers.
When focusing on interventions that lead to the immediate availability of water, measured through ‘meters in cubes of water’ generated, newly supplied water is used immediately for consumption in homes and agriculture and general levels of water do not increase.
Citizen participation
By highlighting the need to map open data platforms ‘from top to bottom’ with data of ‘ascending’ citizen origin, Ski urged the need to focus on citizen science where the data is collected directly from farmers and local communities.
Given the existing data sources of the gaps, the government and many academics and donors have begun to work on the collection of data directly from farmers or community members both for ‘terrestrial truth’ and to update the understanding of the current scenario.
Referring to the national experiment in obtaining groundwater data from the communities through a mobile application, he said that the Jaldot mobile application, jointly developed by the Ministry of Rural Development and Panachayti Rajtifatic), Isyt Data Hosted Wate housed. Data on two or three open wells in each village throughout the country.
Mentioning another study on groundwater levels in the soil with data of farmer origin, he said that an interdisciplinary team of academics in a four -year study that began in May 2019, found that the observation data of the observation of the observation of certain districts of the district (CGWB) and the Department of Resources of the Public Works of the Public Works of the Public Works, the district levels of the district of the groundwater. CGWB groundwater extraction data throughout the groundwater seed data and the seed of ground demand levels.
To understand the discrepancy, with the support of land owners with Borewells, Engineers, Associations of Farmers and Local University Students, the researchers gathered data through a participatory data collection project for more than 800 wells with several parameters.
Highlighting the discrepancy between the informed data of the Government and the farmers, the study said: “Farmers are drilling more than 10 times the depths that the government is measuring the levels of groundwater in. Sevonmon, that the long rogades of Larelowedored Larelowedordordordordordore andorudory, in the depths to which the farmers are drilling or drilling.”
The study pointed out that the mapping of open data platforms ‘from top to bottom’ with data of ‘ascending’ citizen origin has the potential to offer both decision makers and the corporations and users of the government and water. There are two ways in which the data flows, either for farmers or farmers, he said.
Posted on April 16, 2025
