ABSTRACT
Water is essential for human survival. We use it extensively for drinking and farming. In developing countries like India, where 70% of the people are dependent on agriculture, water plays a crucial role in the livelihood of people. It has been widely acknowledged that water is a critical element of poverty in its many dimensions (Biltonen and Dalton, 2003). But, in the last couple of decades the increasing population has skyrocketed the exploitation of water. An example of the overexploitation of groundwater can be cited from the case of Rajasthan where out of 237 Panchayat Samitis 82 have been declared as dark zone, 34 as gray zone and only 121 as white zone, indicating further exploitation of groundwater would be dangerous (Singh, 2003). Groundwater exploitation has been a common phenomenon across all the states of India. The last few decades have also faced erratic rainfall pattern leading surface water availability to the most critical situation.
