'India's most critical freshwater resource': Karnataka urges NCERT to bring in chapter on 'groundwater'

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government has urged the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to introduce a chapter on ‘groundwater’ in the Class 10 social science textbook.

Minor Irrigation Minister N S Boseraju noted that the existing NCERT Class 10 social science textbook Contemporary India-II contains a chapter on Water Resources.

"The current curriculum largely focuses on surface water, with limited attention to groundwater — despite it being India’s most critical freshwater resource," the minister said, announcing that the groundwater directorate, which reports to him, had written to NCERT.

“Nearly 97% of the liquid freshwater available on Earth exists as groundwater. Around 50% of domestic water usage and nearly 25% of agricultural dependence in India rely directly on groundwater sources,” Boseraju said, warning that climate change, declining surface water availability and increasing water consumption are intensifying pressure on groundwater reserves across India.

The government, Boseraju said, has highlighted in its communication that over-exploited, critical, and semi-critical groundwater zones have risen sharply over the past two decades, while groundwater quality continues to deteriorate due to contamination and unsustainable extraction.

In its letter to NCERT, the groundwater directorate has pointed out that school curricula in the USA include detailed lessons on groundwater systems, aquifer behaviour, permeability, porosity, groundwater flow and contamination. "The next generation must understand the real importance of water conservation at the school level itself," Boseraju said.