2007 - Centre for Ecological Sciences - Indian Institute of Science

irrigation is very limited and is currently restricted to kharif as asupplementary source. It is most likely that in future, people will have toswitch over to groundwater sources or desilt the ponds to sustain thereturns from agriculture.Due to paucity of irrigation water, people raise a single crop such as paddy ina cropping year, which is badly dependent on rainfall and alternativesources. This has lowered the dependency on irrigated annual crops andencouraged the shift to perennial crops and, in a few cases, to agriculturebeing abandoned.Area in ha1987 1995 2007300250200150100500PondRainsTrends in irrigation sourcesDrinking WaterSources and Consumption PatternGroundwater is the major source of water for drinking and for otherdomestic needs. A third of the households depend on open wells. There are6 open wells and 4 hand pumps in the village, which serve as sources ofdrinking water. Mini water supply taps, fed by an overhead tank, are used by46% households. All the sources are easily accessible to the householdswithin a range of 0.5 km. Communities spend on an average about 1.5 hoursto a maximum of 2.5 hours daily for collecting water.Taps46%Borewells33%Wells13%Average daily per capita water consumption for drinking, bathing andcooking is 2, 30 and 4 litres respectively. Per capita consumption of waterfrom ponds is maximum (41 litres), followed by open wells (27 litres) andtaps (24 litres); water from hand pumps is used the least (15 litres).Others8%Drinking water sourcesWater QualityChemical quality of water from major sources of drinking water in thevillage was studied. All parameters except nitrate were within thepermissible limits laid down by the Bureau of Indian Standards. The nitratecontent can be attributed to contamination with bird droppings or leachingof water from manure pits (Table 4).Table 4: Drinking water quality status#Desirable limits#1Permissible limits Tap Over head tank Open wellTurbidity as NTU 5.00 10.00