Presentation by Tushaar Shah at Stockholm World Water Week 2014.

1. India’s Energy
Groundwater Nexus:
Present State and
Future Prospects
Tushaar Shah
Senior Fellow, IWMI
Member, GWP-TEC

2. Since 1830, few countries in the world have
invested as much in canal irrigation as India has..
today..

3. Yet, the mainstay of Indian agriculture today are 25 million
private groundwater wells- 15 m electric and 10 m diesel.
Each dot represents
5000 irrigation
wells
Electricity use: 120-150
thousand GWh;
Diesel use: 5-8 billion litres
Groundwater pumped: 230-250
billion m3
Area irrigated 60-70 million ha

4. During the 1970’s, governments anxious to expand irrigation
began to subsidize farm power for irrigation. Soon, this elixir
became the opiate..for a politically strident vote-bank
Energy divide of Indian groundwater economy
Groundwater rich but
energy-poor eastern India
dependent on diesel..
Groundwater
scarce
western
corridor with
electric
tubewells
with power
subsidies

5. Farm power subsidies soon became perverse
Impacts
• Agricultural economy
addicted to subsidies
• Vote-bank politics
• Depleted aquifers
• Bankrupt electricity
industry
• Massive waste of power
and water
• Anarchy on electric
feeders

6. Electricity subsidy as a percentage of state fiscal deficits
very high in some states
0 20 40 60 80 100
Bihar
West Bengal
U.P (Power corp)
Maharashtra
Punjab
Tamil Nadu
Rajasthan (Transco)
Karnataka
Andhra Pradesh
Gujarat
Haryana
Madhya Pradesh
Percentage
BRISCOE, 2005, Data
pertains to 2002
Many electricity
utilities went
bankrupt..
Yet farmers
received poor
quality power
supply

7. Perverse electricity-groundwater
nexus
at its worst..

8. West Bengal pulled this off
because it has few electric tube
wells. In western states, this
would fell governments..
West Bengal’s
textbook pricing
solution: meter and
TOD tariff

9. Gujarat’s Jyotigram
Yojana: second-best
but politically feasible
rationing solution

10. Gujarat, the original ‘basket case’ rewired the country-side and
created a tamper-proof system of rationing farm power..
Figure 1 a Electricity Network Before Figure 1 b Electricity Network after

11. Community-driven water harvesting and groundwater recharge
movement in Saurashtra has revitalized dying agriculture
Meghal basin drainage network Profusion of check dams built by
people, with government support

12. Gujarat’s agriculture has been growing @ 9+%
This growth is energized by groundwater irrigation.
Yet, Gujarat is the only state in western India where
groundwater levels are improving..and the electricity
utility is again making money..

13. Investing in decentralized Managed Aquifer Recharge can ease the
energy-groundwater nexus in western India
Energy use/m3 of groundwater
Without MAR With decentralized MAR

14. The energy-groundwater
nexus in Eastern India,
Bangladesh, Nepal terai
and Pakistan Punjab
No electricity; little subsidy;
Abundant groundwater; massive
poverty; but the diesel-dependent
groundwater economy is
shrinking with each increase in
diesel price;

16. Solar Irrigation Pumps:
Five Problems, One Solution

17. Total solution to India’s energy-groundwater nexus:
Smart Solar Pump Promotion Strategy
Problem 1:A1
nannual farm
power subsidy bill:
US $ 6 billion
Eastern India: solar pump subsidies
to create entrepreneurial Irrigation
Service Providers
Smart subsidy-loan model for solar
pumps and buried pipe distribution
system to catalyze vibrant local
irrigation service markets
Replacing all electric
irrigation pumps in India
by solar pumps would save
US $ 5 billion/year in
subsidies
Western India: solar power as cash crop
1.Subsidize solar pumps to wean farmer
away from grid power;
2. provide assured buy-back of surplus
solar power by net metering at same
terms as MW scale solar plants;
3. organize solar farmer co-ops to pool
solar power in a village and evacuate it at
single point.

18. Total solution to India’s energy-groundwater nexus:
Smart Solar Pump Promotion Strategy
Problem 2:A1
Unreliable, poor
quality grid power
supply during
nights
Eastern India: solar pump subsidies
to create entrepreneurial Irrigation
Service Providers
Smart subsidy-loan model for solar
pumps and buried pipe distribution
system to catalyze vibrant local
irrigation service markets
Solar pumps can offer
2500-3500 hours/year of
reliable power during the
day year-round all over
India
Western India: solar power as cash crop
1.Subsidize solar pumps to wean farmer
away from grid power;
2. provide assured buy-back of surplus
solar power by net metering at same
terms as MW scale solar plants;
3. organize solar farmer co-ops to pool
solar power in a village and evacuate it at
single point.

19. Total solution to India’s energy-groundwater nexus:
Smart Solar Pump Promotion Strategy
Problem 3:A1
Nperverse incentives
drive groundwater
depletion in western
India
Eastern India: solar pump subsidies
to create entrepreneurial Irrigation
Service Providers
Smart subsidy-loan model for solar
pumps and buried pipe distribution
system to catalyze vibrant local
irrigation service markets
With assured buyback of
surplus solar power from
solar farmer coops, farmers
will treat solar energy as a
lucrative ‘ cash crop’.
Western India: solar power as cash crop
1.Subsidize solar pumps to wean farmer
away from grid power;
2. provide assured buy-back of surplus
solar power by net metering at same
terms as MW scale solar plants;
3. organize solar farmer co-ops to pool
solar power in a village and evacuate it at
single point.

20. Total solution to India’s energy-groundwater nexus:
Smart Solar Pump Promotion Strategy
Western India: solar power as cash crop
1.Subsidize solar pumps to wean farmer
away from grid power;
2. provide assured buy-back of surplus
solar power by net metering at same
terms as MW scale solar plants;
3. organize solar farmer co-ops to pool
solar power in a village and evacuate it at
single point.
Problem 4:A1Rising
diesel costs shrink
groundwater economy
of eastern India with
immiserising results
Eastern India: solar pump subsidies
to create entrepreneurial Irrigation
Service Providers
Smart subsidy-loan model for solar
pumps and buried pipe distribution
system to catalyze vibrant local
irrigation service markets
Solar pump based
Irrigation Service Markets
are insulated from soaring
diesel prices and from
unreliable grid power.

21. Total solution to India’s energy-groundwater nexus:
Smart Solar Pump Promotion Strategy
Problem5:
Agroundwater
economy accounts for
6% of India’s carbon
emission
Eastern India: solar pump subsidies
to create entrepreneurial Irrigation
Service Providers
Smart subsidy-loan model for solar
pumps and buried pipe distribution
system to catalyze vibrant local
irrigation service markets
Replacing thermal power and
diesel by solar pumps transforms
India’s ‘dirty’ groundwater
irrigation economy into clean
and green.
Western India: solar power as cash crop
1.Subsidize solar pumps to wean farmer
away from grid power;
2. provide assured buy-back of surplus
solar power by net metering at same
terms as MW scale solar plants;
3. organize solar farmer co-ops to pool
solar power in a village and evacuate it at
single point.

22. Governments have begun offering outrageously
lucrative solar pump subsidies.
But these are dumb. They promote solar
pump as only a ‘green’ energy solution.
A smart subsidy would promote solar pumps as an
energy-water-environment-livelihoods solution
Thank You for this
opportunity