This document summarizes a workshop on improving freshwater monitoring frameworks in northwest India. It discusses current groundwater quality monitoring efforts and gaps. Key issues include increased pollution levels, falling water levels, and a lack of comprehensive and high-resolution spatial monitoring of parameters like heavy metals. The document outlines the need to better understand recharge processes, water quality impacts, and the properties of groundwater systems through improved monitoring protocols. Case studies from the region are proposed to help address questions around these issues and make recommendations to improve water resource management.

1. Gopal Krishan
Scientist - C
National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee- 247667, Uttarakhand, India
D.J. Lapworth, Alan MacDonald, Helen Bonsor
BGS, UK
*Corresponding E-mail: drgopal.krishan@gmail.com
Workshop on
“Improving freshwater monitoring frameworks and data for research and
management”
23-25 January, 2018 at Kochi, Kerala
NIH, Roorkee

2. Ground
water
quality
Northwest
India
What exists?/What do
we Know?
 Rudimentary Physico-chemical
parameters monitored regularly –
various centre/state govt. Agencies,
acad. institute
 Pollution levels increased drastically
due to anthropogenic factors
 Water levels decreased
 Other important parameters
concerning trace metals etc., high
resolution data are limited and
localised on the spatial scale
What is lacking?/Scope for work
 A comprehensive assessment of the
groundwater –
 Rudimentary and special physico-
chemical parameters
 Heavy metals
 Tracer techniques
 High resolution monitoring
 All undertaken in uniform
experimental protocol, temporal and
spatial scale
 Insight about special properties of the
Groundwater – Does these have
properties unique to it like CC
resilience?
 If so, does high level extration impact
these special properties?
Punjab, Haryana, HP,
Uttarakhand, part of
Rajasthan, N.Delhi and
Western UP

3. GROUNDWATER
Case Studies
Methodology
Motivation
INTRODUCTION (Background to
groundwater challenges)
High abstraction
Recomm
endations
What are the
recharge
potential?
Scrutinizing the
science behind
contamination
of deep aquifers
Water
Resource
Management
Understand overall
environmental impact on the
GW at present - through all
the parameters
Analysis
Attempt to answer
Impact of
pollution on
special properties
Inferences
Recommendations
Future work

4. NIH, Roorkee
Population growth and prosperity increases
demand for food, but is there enough
water and energy to sustain this?
•More than 80% of the water abstracted in
Northwest India is used for irrigation
•The availability of cheap water has been a
spring board for agriculture
•Water in many areas is becoming
contaminated (F, As, U) or affected by
salinization
•Increasing irrigation efficiency is not
necessarily the answer
It has been estimated that total volume of groundwater to
be about 30,000 km3. About 20 times the combined annual
flow in the Ganges, Indus and Brahmaputra (1200 km3).
However as estimated, 23% of this is saline and 37%
affected by arsenic.

5. NIH, Roorkee
Mechanisms of salinity from
canal irrigation in the Indus
Basin
Increased salinity reduces the types of crops
that can be grown; declining groundwater
levels increases pumping costs, energy
requirements and makes shallow wells fail

6. NIH, Roorkee

7. NIH, Roorkee
Some major groundwater issues in the region
1. Increased Groundwater Abstraction
• Falling groundwater levels in agricultural areas
•Tension between agricultural and growing ‘high value’ urban and industrial
users
•Uncertainty about the security of deeper fresh water reserves
• Public vs private interests and allocation
2. Water Quality
• Arsenic, fluoride, salinity, microbial contamination from flooding
• Contamination from agriculture and poor sanitation
• Rising salinity levels in groundwater
• Salinisation problems in irrigated soils

8. NIH, Roorkee
Draft typology map of the Indo-Gangetic Basin
Criteria: Multi-layered, extensive, thick
unconsolidated alluvium aquifer – coarse
sediment
Falling groundwater levels
Groundwater salinity at depth
Extensive irrigation
Surface water groundwater interaction
Resilience:
+High productivity/storage aquifer
+High potential meteoric recharge
-High abstraction including some cities
-- Significant long-term trends in falling water
table
- - Saline groundwater at depth
Regional setting
Highly abstracted unconsolidated layered
alluvial aquifer system
O1: To collate historical water level responses to abstraction across a representative
catchment
O2: To collate new evidence on recharge processes, groundwater quality, groundwater
residence times, and connectivity of the layered aquifer systems and surface water by
repeated sampling of shallow and deep piezometers using a suite of environmental tracers
Q1: Is there evidence from GWL variations of enhanced recharge potential induced by
abstraction?
Q2: Is there evidence of vertical leakage to depth within the layered alluvial system?

9. Important Environmental Tracers
Stable Isotopes (Recharge sources)
Age Dating Techniques (Groundwater Residence time tracers)
CFCs & SF6
Noble gases
Environmental tritium
Inorganic chemistry: e.g. Cl, NO3 and trace elements
Others
Loggers (water level and conductivity)
Tracer: a substance introduced into a biological organism or other system so
that its subsequent distribution may be readily followed from its colour,
radioactivity, or other distinctive property
Water Quality Parameters
Arsenic, Uranium

10. Sampling for CFCs, SF6 and stable isotopes
• CFCs and SF6 – modern groundwater
dating tools
• Sample collection by the bottle-in-can
method
• atmospheric air is excluded during
sampling to obtain a representative
sample
• air displacement method for CFCs
and SF6
• specialist techniques and are not
routinely sampled or analysed
CFC sampling
Analysis (rapid and cost-effective )
CFCs and SF6 are measured by gas
chromatography using an electron capture
detector (GC- ECD) following cryogenic pre-
concentration
The detection limit for CFC concentrations in
water is 0.01 pmol/L, while for SF6 it is 0.1
fmol/L

11. Sampling for noble gases
• Noble gases – thermometry, i.e. recharge
temperature, and excess air assessment
• atmospheric air is excluded during sampling to
obtain a representative sample
• sealed copper tubes for noble gases
• are specialist techniques and are not routinely
sampled or analysed

12. NIH, Roorkee
• Sampling from paired shallow (<50 mbgl)
and deep (>100 mbgl)
• Pre and post monsoon sampling
Study area – Bist Doab, Punjab, India

13. NIH, Roorkee
Long-term changes in phreatic GW levels
• Large quantity of data available - CGWB
• Missing meta data is an issue at many sites – e.g.
pumped or observation wells?

14. NIH, Roorkee
Long-term changes in groundwater levels
Matrix of shallow groundwater security

15. NIH, Roorkee
Groundwater residence time tracer results
– anthropogenic and natural

16. NIH, Roorkee
Groundwater nitrate* variations

17. Depth profiles for selected hydrochemistry for different land use a) SEC (mS/cm), b)
CFC-12, data from Lapworth et al. (2015, (pmol/L), c) DO (mg/L), d) As, e) NO3 (mg/L),
f) F (mg/L), g) Se (mg/L), h) Pb (mg/L). Solid line shows WHO drinking water guideline
values (WHO 2011), dashed line distinguishes deep and shallow sites.
Overall there is a
decrease in
concentration with
depth for all parameters
except As for Urban
sites. For agricultural
sites broad decreases in
concentrations with
depth are observed for
all parameters except F,
Se and As which had no
clear trend with depth.
Highest concentrations
for a range of trace
elements including As,
Pb, Se, and F were found
in sites dominated by
urban/peri-urban land
use, and Pb and NO3
these were close to or
below the WHO
guideline value for
drinking water.

18. Depth profiles of Uranium and key hydrogeochemical parameters for different land
use a) U (mg/L), b) pH, c) Eh (mV), d) HCO3 (mg/L). Solid line shows WHO drinking
water guideline value of 30 mg/L for Uranium (WHO 2011). Dashed line distinguishes
deep and shallow sites.

19. Box-plot of selected hydrochemical parameters by land use and borehole depth a) SEC
(mS/cm), b) CFC-12 (pmol/L), c) DO (mg/L), d) pH, e) HCO3 (mg/L), f) U (mg/L), g) NO3
(mg/L), h) Pb (mg/L), i) Cl (mg/L), j) As (mg/L). DAgr = deep agricultural, DUrb = deep urban,
SAgr = Shallow agricultural, SUrb = shallow urban. Solid lines show WHO drinking water
guideline values (WHO 2011).

20. Stable isotope results • Large overlap between shallow and deep
GW isotope signatures,
• No significant difference between pre-
post monsoon conditions in deep or
shallow sites
• A few shallow sites show evidence of
surface water recharge – R. Beas alluvial
aquifer
• Evaporative enrichment in some shallow
sites
• No evidence of significant recharge from
R. Satluj and related canal system in the
south of the catchment
Evaporation dominated
Precipitation dominated
Satluj canal dominated

21. • Q1: Long term GWL data shows
evidence of enhanced recharge
potential
• But there are significant parts of
the catchment where abstraction
is outstripping recharge potential
leading to long term loss of
shallow groundwater security –
cost implications for access to
shallow GW
• Q2: Clear evidence, from a range
of independent groundwater
tracers, that there is significant
vertical leakage and recharge from
shallow sources to depth (>150)
mbgl induced by pumping
• The natural regional
groundwater flow regime is highly
perturbed due to pumping and the
system can be considered highly
isotropic under pumped
conditions
• This has implication for long
term groundwater quality
protection of deep aquifers and
water resource management •
Reduced shallow groundwater
levels in some regions is good
news: lower salinity build up, soil
waterlogging and of course
flooding

22. NIH, Roorkee

23. Downloading data (04-04-2016 to 06-04-2016) at Saroya, Bhogpur, Kapurthala and
Sultanpur Lodhi

24. Radon decay
Natural radioactivity (half-life)
in the ground
uranium-238 ⇒ ⇒ radium-226 ⇒
4.5 billion years 1600 years
radon-222 gas has time to leak into the air ⇒⇒
3.8 days
lead-210 ⇒⇒ lead-206
22 years stable
radon progeny (daughters)
radioactive isotopes of lead, bismuth, and polonium can
be inhaled and deposited in the lungs

25. STUDY AREA

28. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding
BGS-DFID, UK- Indo-gangetic study
BGS, UK
NIH
Dr. S.K. Jain, Director
Dr. N.C. Ghosh, Sc. G & Head, GWHD
Dr. M.S. Rao, Scientist-D, HID
IIT-Roorkee
Dr. Brijesh Yadav
Organizers
Dr. A.K. Sahai
Dr. Harry
Ms Priya Joshi

29. Thank you
NIH, Roorkee

30. NIH, Roorkee
Questions ?