As growth of the primary water resources weakens, it becomes highly significant to figure out the reasons and take immediate measures to see for a safe and very promising future of the available water resources with which the Kashmir is endowed.
This is just another drying up of wells and borewells in Kashmir as the sources of rivers, streams, and groundwater resources have over the history been used for meeting the agriculture, household, and industrial requirements. With a water-rich environment, the peasant region had to depend on surface water as far as irrigation and drinking were concerned.
Yet, most of these wells and bores have dried up over the years, leaving communities struggling in search of basic water. The situation worsens during summer when so much water is used at once.
One major cause of these phenomena in the drying of wells and borewells is over-extraction of groundwater, since both the domestic needs and pressures for agriculture are on the increase, and consequently, no process of recharging the base flow is emerging rapidly enough vis-à-vis the extractions. Worst still, the use of resource-intensive farming patterns, like particularly paddy, in areas depending strongly on bore wells exceed the aquifer depletion limit.
The altered climate in Kashmir has induced unpredictable patterns in rainfall and lesser amounts of snow in the winter season, causing erratic snow melting, hence decreasing the once-perfect process of snowmelt recharging groundwater. Dry spells are becoming more frequent. Besides, it also starts impacting the river flow by altering weather patterns.
The reversal requires emphasizing some pragmatic, effective measures for water management, which will have great importance in the wake of global warming, dereliction of natural water bodies, and water shortage. As a matter of fact, extensive water-saving measures are imperative since the government takes on huge amounts of public and local authority support. That would include urban water conservation by means of rainwater harvesting and artificial groundwater recharge.
Farmers must be informed of more water-efficient irrigation practices that could save the water from running out. Some of these include drip irrigation, sprinklers, and many more.
There is the imminent answer that multiple springs across Kashmir should be conserved and entailed—involving people in water conservation would really come in handy.
