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The key source of water within the district is groundwater which mostly fulfils the strain of the agricultural and concrete households. The surface water is incredibly limited and is out there only during three months of monsoon. Thus, this paper is an effort to look at water availability and its various usages within the Sikar district of Rajasthan State.

Water managers and planners are slowly starting to change their perspective and perceptions about how best to satisfy human needs for water. they're shifting from a spotlight on building supply infrastructure to enhance their understanding of how water is employed and the way those uses can best be met. within the field of water utilisation, geographers have laid more stress on irrigation and their associated problems and management (Bilas, 1988; Kumar and Avinash, 1993; Sharma and Sharma, 2003; Nagarajan, 2003; Vaidyanathan, 2006). But only a few studies are made on water utilisation within the arid and semi-arid areas of India. This study, thus, attempts to review water utilisation within the semi-arid district of Rajasthan, which is able to be useful to planners and managers in managing the water resources of the realm in a very better way.

The Study Area

The Aravalli ranges pass through the middile of Sikar. The remains of Thethis sea  can be seen in the Thar desert in the north- west part of sikar. The significant piece of the world of Rajasthan which is thought as Sikar district appears to possess seen a storm that washed this region and left its stamps fit as a fiddle of sand layers noticeable everywhere. This territory is semi desert, like the looks of sea bed.

The southern and south-eastern area of the district is comprised of loamy soil and mounts of the Aravalli range. Area and placement of Sikar.

Sikar is additionally called the ‘Gateway of Desert’. it's located within the north-eastern a part of Rajasthan. It lies between 27⁰13' North to 28⁰12'  North latitude and 74⁰26' East To 75⁰25' East longitude. It's a median height of 1,401ft or 427m above water level from cost of Mumbai Datum Line. It's enclosed by the Nagaur district in south-west and Jaipur in south-east, Churu district within the north-west. In its north-east corner, it's bound by Mahendragarh district of Harayana.

Sikar has a section of 7732sq.kms, running from south to north. it's divided into two main topographical areas. Its western region is stuffed with sand dunes, together with a perennial river. There are five streams specifically, Kantli, Mandha, Doha, Sabi and Krishnawati. The locale is parted into two sections by the Aravalli slopes. The Fatehpur, Laxmangarh and Sikar tehsils contain sandy plot and are single trimmed regions. Though, Neem-ka-Thana, Danta Ramgarh and SriMadhopur tehsils include twofold trimmed regions.

Topography of Sikar

Sikar district is split into two major topographic units - the western half and therefore the eastern half. The western half is identified by the waste land and also the sand dunes. While, the eastern half is distinguished by the scope of slopes which pattern from north-east to south-west. The hills during this half prevent the incoming of sand from the western half.

On the idea of the bottom level and possibility of putting sewers at a depth required, the topography of Sikar are often classified into two zones as:

1. North-East zone which has areas around Nawalgadh Road, Udaipurwati Road until the railway line, Fathepur Road, Bajaj Road, Bakra mandi and Kabristan.

2. South-West zone which has areas around Jaipur Road, Fathepur bypass Road.

3. Geology of Sikar The shape generally Sikar is of an eccentric bow or a vessel or half moon. The locale could be comprehensively isolated into three regular divisions to be specific:

4. The desert directs the north western parcel,

5. The semi desert territory with hillocks within the centre, and

6.  The undulating and sloping region in north and north eastern part.

The significant piece of the realm could be a sandy tract however it's all the more so towards the north of Sikar which structures a bit of the incredible Indian desert. The mounts within the region structures some piece of the Aravalli ranges. These run from south to north isolating the world into two equal halves.

The area towards south of Khandela in Sri Madhopur tehsil inside the middle is an undulating plain. The district doesn't contain any perennial rivers.

Rock Types in Sikar

The styles of rock found in Sikar are Quarzites, Conglomerate, and Schist. they need an area only with Delhi Supergroup of Meta silt. they're differentiated from the more seasoned Aravalli's by a striking unconformity. The unmistakable exposures are seen on Neem-ka- Thana rises arranged within the eastern and north eastern parts of the region. The Delhi Supergroup rocks are isolated into Alwar and Ajabgarh Group. The metasediments of Alwar Group are described by predominance of arenaceous rocks comprising of quartzits of varied sorts.

These rock sorts are seen within the eastern some piece of Sikar along the continuation of Khetri region within the centre of southern part. Moreover, various bound harvests are filled in Saladipura, Khandela, Sevli and Kotri. The regional strike of those stones is north south.InSaladipura region, amphibole quartzite, schists and marbles are found in a very real anticline. Its middle is moved by fundamental meddling, later changed to epidiorites and amphibolite. Exposures found near Byore, Roopgarh and encompassing ranges within the centre of southern part, some piece of the locale comprises of quartzites of distinctive sorts with subordinate measure of mica schists. the pattern of rocks is north-east: south-west to north-north-east: south-south-west with dips that fluctuate towards west.The design of the stones of Ajabgarh are depicted by colossal portion of calcareous rocks. the first rock sorts are marble, calc silicates, calc-gneisses, phyllites and mica schists. the pattern of the rocks is north east-south west dipping low towards west.

The event of Ajabgarh is portrayed by gneisses, quartzites, and amphibole marble are for the foremost part seen as in south of Kotri Rampura and around Atheaga. Volcanic eruptions of both basic and acidic types of rock are uncovered everywhere Sikar. The essential nosy incorporating epidiorites and amphibolite's in style of veins sheets. The destructive eruptions incorporate stone and pegmatite found as dykes and Silla.

  

Research Methodology The Study relies on both primary and secondary sources of knowledge. The secondary data has been collected from various government departments like, Department of Irrigation and Water Resource Agriculture (Sikar and Jaipur), Central Groundwater Board (CGWB, Jaipur), Department of Agriculture, Sikar; Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED, Sikar) then on. From these departments various data and reports are collected and reports from many other private institutes were obtained for presenting the factual information. Besides, books, thesis, journals, articles, newspaper, internet websites were also consulted. The water utilisation patterns are examined on the premise of primary data in both rural and concrete areas. The first unit to analysis is village within the geographical region and city for the urban areas. Stratified proportionate sampling has been wont to collect the first data and also the sample size is 2.5 percent. Total 25 villages out of 992 villages are selected randomly, and 4 towns (total 9 towns within the district) are selected for primary survey. 

Water Availability

The sources of water within the Sikar district are mainly- groundwater and surface water. Physical conditions like arid climate, high temperatures and low amount of rainwater affect surface water availability which is 221 mcm. Surface water availability is more in central and eastern parts because of the presence of seasonal rivers. But it's available only during time of year. The share of groundwater to total water is 58.5 per cent on which major population depends.

The depth of water table varies from 2.7 m in November to 66.5 m in August. within the period of pre-and post-monsoon, groundwater of maximum wells goes down by 2 m. the increase in groundwater isn't much but some parts, where rainfall is more, have experienced rise by 4 m (CGWB, 2005). The groundwater quality is poor in north western part mainly in Fatehpur block resulting into safe groundwater availability. Fluoride level is kind of high than the desirable level (CGWB, 2020). Groundwater is overexploited through tube wells for irrigation purpose except Fatehpur block. Thus, the quantity of water within the district is restricted and water demands are mostly fulfilled by groundwater only

Water Use

In earlier period, towns and villages were invariably situated on or near waterbodies, preferably the banks of streams from which they'll get water easily. But in time span, when population increased and extended inside the country, lacking natural supplies; artificial methods of securing the requisite supply became necessary. Consequently, they developed different water drawing methods. Sources of installation depend almost upon groundwater. The partial source of water is rainfall and also the resulting water bodies like rivers and ponds.

 Water bodies are influenced by the geological structure which enables certain rocks to store that a part of the rain which percolates through the soil. within the rural areas, water is essentially utilised for agricultural purposes. The agricultural water use is defined because the amount of water employed by the plants during a given area from natural further as from artificial source. it's also clear that in rural areas of the study area, maximum water is utilised for irrigational purpose (73 per cent) then for domestic use (27 per cent). On the opposite hand, in urban areas, the utilization of water is primarily for domestic purpose . the utilization of water for other purposes like industrial is negligible due to water scarcity (Thakur and Abhay, 2009).

Water use in geographic area a. Agricultural water use Agriculture is that the major sector during which maximum water is used through irrigation. it's also a vital source of income for the people residing within the rural areas. In Sikar, two agricultural seasons are main - rabi and kharif. In rabi season the key crops are wheat, mustard, gram, barley, vegetables (potato, onion, chilly) and in kharif season bajara, gowar, pulses (moong, moth, chaula), Oilseeds (sesame, groundnut) are grown. Water utilisation within the district depends on the farming characteristics like- size of holdings, sources of irrigation, and purpose of cultivation of the households.

Irrigation in fields

In agriculture, water is utilized for irrigating the fields. the availability of water in any region determines the cropping pattern of the realm. the provision of water and availability of varied sources of irrigation is additionally a dominant consider deciding the employment of water. illustrates that out of the whole net sown area, only 21 per cent area is irrigated where various sources for irrigating the fields are adopted. Farmers are still lacking modern sources of irrigation. On 79 per cent of the net sown area, still, traditional source of irrigation is utilized, i.e., rain. 21 per cent farmers use canals, wells, tube wells, drips and sprinklers in their field (Table 2). Still, 94 per cent irrigated area is irrigated through wells, the old technique, but now the farmers attach engines with it and are extracting groundwater in step with requirements. Only 1.25 per cent area is irrigated through drips and sprinklers within the district.

 

The farmers have inadequacy of funds and awareness about the various programmers and schemes, provided by the government for irrigation development. Farmer involves sprinklers by fitting motor in their wells. Thus, due to seasonal availability of surface water the farmers still show dependency on the natural source (rainfall) of irrigation. The maximum irrigation takes place through tube wells from groundwater due to the seasonal availability of surface water. Size of holdings and purpose of cultivation: The use of water is determined by the size of holdings and purpose of cultivation.

Large fields require large amount of water for irrigation since crops are grown for marketing as well as for subsistence purpose. Small size farms require, comparatively, low amount and fulfils only domestic requirement of food. The field size in the district is of marginal size (74 per cent), 8 per cent households have more than 2-acre land (medium size). The small (18 per cent) and medium size holdings farmers do agriculture in both seasons (rabi and kharif) because they have accessibility to the modern sources of irrigation like tube well. The role of these farmers (26 per cent) is important in water consumption because they supply water to the fields when it is not available from rainfall. Thus, they extract groundwater and supply it more than the requirement of fields. In this regard, it is important to see the purpose of cultivation which depends upon the means of irrigation.

The marginal farmers are mainly engaged in subsistence agriculture (40 per cent). These farmers do not have access to modern irrigation facilities and, thus, they are totally dependent upon rain. The large percentage (38 per cent) of farmers are practicing agriculture for both, subsistence as well as marketing purposes and harvest two crops in a year. They exploit maximum groundwater for rabi crops. 21 per cent farmers are landless and work as a tenant farmer. They share production with the owner of land, therefore, want to get maximum production by using maximum water.

Domestic water utilisation

The major use of water in the domestic field is for drinking and cooking. This category shows maximum water utilisation in all income groups. In all categories high income group households use almost 79 litre waters per capita per day (lpcd) for drinking and cooking purposes while lower income households use around 58.6 litre water per day. Almost all high-income group households possess private ownership of water and they use maximum water for cooking, while lower income group uses common source of water.

High class households use more water in comparison to other categories in the general cleanliness category. The same trend is also found in bathing category. Most of the lower income households are engaged in primary activities in which they didn't have time for bathing. They used to bath in alternate days or sometimes once in a week. Due to this they use less water for bathing (46.7 litres/ day). This is less because they have large families behind them. On the other hand, upper class households use more water for bathing (61.4 litres) daily. Daily bathing is due to engagement in secondary activities and effects of caste.

The spatial variation in domestic water utilisation pattern highlights that in all income groups, average family size is around of 7 members, so in all the blocks except Piprali and Dhond, water utilisation for drinking and cooking is almost or above 60 litres per capita. It is also clear that in Fatehpur and Lachhmangarh blocks water utilisation per capita is more than 50 litres for all three income groups, due to salinity and enough groundwater availability. But as we move east and south, utilisation in two categories, except drinking and cooking, is less due to overuse of groundwater resulting into depletion of water sources. In Sikar, as a whole, 67.5 litres water are used for drinking and cooking purposes, while 55.7 and 53.9 litres are used for washing and bathing purposes, respectively.

Relationship between ownership and utilisation of water: It has been found that upper- and middle-income groups have more than 70 per cent private ownership on water sources and they use almost 200 litres water daily. On the other hand, lower income group have maximum per cent in common ownership (41.3%). But it is interesting that if upper- and middle-income groups have private source of water, the household use water per day is more, and it decreases when they have common ownership. The reason is that they don't want to bring water from a common source where all the caste people fill their pots. The lower income people use more water if water is commonly available (171.3 lpd). Thus, it can be concluded that ownership and water utilisation are related to each other according to income groups. High class uses more water if they have personal ownership while lower uses more when it is commonly available.

Water use in urban areas Based on the primary data analysis it is found that in urban areas water is used mainly for domestic and industrial purposes. For this data has been collected from four towns out of nine towns in the district. Selected towns are Fatehpur, Sikar (the district headquarters), Khandela and Neem Ka Thana.

Domestic water use

Water utilization pattern: Urban water utilization pattern shows that water use in two towns (Fatehpur and Khandela), for drinking and cooking purposes is more than 80 lpd while other two (Sikar and Neem Ka Thana) uses less than 50 lpd. Other two water utilization categories show decline in the use from west to east direction in the study area. Fatehpur town located in north-western part has enough groundwater availability, thus, uses more than 50 litrewater on washing and bathing. But towards east in Sikar, Khandela and Neem Ka Thana use of water on both washing and bathing declines, respectively. This is due to less availability of water. This can also be linked to groundwater availability which is overexploited in the central and eastern part of the district. Western blocks covering, Lachhmangarh and Fatehpur are not much exploited due to presence of saline water.

Income level and water use: The positive relation has been found with income level and water use. Higher income group households consume more water for different purposes in comparison to lower- and middle-income groups. With respect to per capita use of water on bathing and washing, they use less water in comparison to middle income group. Lower class uses around 50- litre water per day for each purpose. The maximum water is utilized on drinking and cooking purposes (175.9 litre) than washing (178.3 litre) and bathing (163.8 litre). Since drinking and cooking are essential for sustaining life, water is utilized at any cost; but, for other purposes they use less water because of water scarcity. Thus, water utilization is linked with its availability. In urban areas, 11 per cent people are engaged in agriculture and use water in irrigation.

The large share of the population is engaged in secondary and tertiary activities, therefore, utilizes maximum water in domestic sector. Thus, in rural areas water is used both in agriculture and domestic purpose, while in urban area in domestic purpose. Similarly, water is used more for hygienic in comparison to other uses in both rural and urban areas. The amount of water used for different purposes varies from village to village, urban to urban and village to urban also. The amount which is used in irrigation is more than domestic needs in urban areas. In rural areas, the second major use of water is in domestic purpose, mainly for drinking and cooking. In rural households, 67.5 litre/day, while 62.3 litre in urban household is utilized for this purpose.

At present, changing lifestyle of the people forces them to consume more water and water use is shifting and increasing for other purposes. For example, in rural areas water utilization for irrigation is shifting towards other uses like cleaning and washing (hygienic). In urban areas, water is consumed more for cleaning and washing of utensils, clothes in houses and ablution purposes.

The field survey has revealed that households in towns are more concerned about the hygienic use of water. In rural areas water crises increases in summer due to less water supply or by depletion of groundwater. The village community tries to dig well deeper or they arrange water from the nearby places. Economically, better off people living in rural and urban areas manage water from non-traditional sources, water from tankers on paid basis in summer season. The worst sufferers are lower income people in rural and urban areas. It has been observed that villages, not connected with road face more problems.

The Study relies on both primary and secondary sources of knowledge. The secondary data has been collected from various government departments like, Department of Irrigation and Water Resource Agriculture (Sikar and Jaipur), Central Groundwater Board (CGWB, Jaipur), Department of Agriculture, Sikar; Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED, Sikar) then on. From these departments various data and reports are collected and reports from many other private institutes were obtained for presenting the factual information. Besides, books, thesis, journals, articles, newspaper, internet websites were also consulted. The water utilisation patterns are examined on the premise of primary data in both rural and concrete areas. The first unit to analysis is village within the geographical region and city for the urban areas. Stratified proportionate sampling has been wont to collect the first data and also the sample size is 2.5 percent. Total 25 villages out of 992 villages are selected randomly, and 4 towns (total 9 towns within the district) are selected for primary survey. Nine households are selected randomly in each selected unit of research and total 261 households (225 rural and 36 urban) are covered. Households are stratified on the idea of their income into three income groups – high, middle and low groups. Data results are represented with the assistance of varied cartographic, techniques like bar graphs, pie charts etc. Various software’s are used for representing maps like- ArcView3.1, and also the preparation, processing of databases has been tired MS Excel.

Sampling method by collecting primary data in the research area. and Sampling by Standrd Sampling, Random and experence sampling methods.

Department of Irrigation and Water Resource Agriculture (Sikar and Jaipur), Central Groundwater Board (CGWB, Jaipur), Department of Agriculture, Sikar; Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED, Sikar) then on. From these departments various data and reports are collected and reports from many other private institutes were obtained for presenting the factual information

It is concluded from the discussion that the water utilization pattern in semi-arid region differs from other climatic regions. In semi-arid region, more water is used for irrigation purpose in rural areas and for domestic purpose in urban areas. The analysis of survey suggests that the district's water utilization pattern is changing because of the changing lifestyle of the people in both areas.

Major changes have taken place in the irrigation water use in rural areas and in urban areas it is related to hygienic purpose. Water distribution system is highly uneven in the district and water supply is inadequate to fulfil domestic requirements of the households. The higher income group households use more water daily due to high percentage of private ownership on the water resources. Water use is still ineffectively perceived and deficiently estimated and announced. The present study, therefore, helps and will be useful to planners and managers in managing the water resources of the area.

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