Once arid city now waterlogged

Jodhpur: Every morning, Yavendra Rathore begins his day by pumping water out of his stationery shop in Jodhpur, as much a part of his morning routine as brushing his teeth.

Jodhpur has not suffered torrential rain. Nor is there a river passing through it which has burst its banks. Known as the "Sun City", Jodhpur is in the desert state of Rajasthan and is known as the "gateway" to the great Thar Desert.

Yet the floor of the shop is wet. Other shops, schools, offices, law courts, and temples are all being submerged by water seeping through from under the ground.

Recently, lawyers and judges had to evacuate the courts because water had risen up to their ankles. Local newspapers reported a priest in a Hindu temple conducting his rituals standing in a great puddle of water.

"My friends who have basements in their homes are desperate. One runs a shoe shop and his entire stock of shoes was destroyed by water. Everything is being ruined. First we used to suffer terrible droughts and now we've got water coming through in the wrong places," said Rathore.

There is a booming business in electric motor pumps. Manufacturers cannot keep up with demand. Virtually every other home in the city has had to install a pump. This is run every day to suck the water out of homes and shops.

The origin of this underground flooding began in 1997 soon after water from the Indira Gandhi Canal was brought to Jodhpur, through a small connecting canal, to solve the city's chronic water shortage.

Drought plagued Jodhpur every year. The canal waters solved the water shortage and everyone was delighted. Jodhpur is a very popular tourist destination because of its ancient forts and palaces and for once hotel owners were relieved to have enough water for their guests.

Moreover, much of Jodhpur's agricultural output - and that of other desert cities - improved thanks to the canal water.

But the canal water was stored in natural reservoirs which happened to have cracks in their base.

Water began seeping out. As it seeped out, the water table rose. In some parts of the city, water is seeping through to the surface. In others, it is just a few centimetres below the surface.

"The entire water table has risen to just one metre below the surface. Normally, it should be at least five metres below ground," said O. P. Poonia, a scientist with the Central Ground Water Board in Jodhpur.

Poonia says the hydrological formation of the ground in Jodhpur has a limited capacity for absorbing water, which is why, instead of spreading out horizontally and dispersing, it is rising to the top.

In 2000, basements began to be flooded. "For close to a decade, no one in the government has done anything to fix the problem. Now it's become a crisis and a daily nuisance," said Anil Bhatti, who owns a small tourist guest house which is affected by the flooding. He has installed four motor pumps to keep the water at bay.

The Jodhpur government has now asked specialists outside the city to suggest long-term solutions. As for compensation for water damage, an official in the chief minister's office said there was no plan to offer any.