Status of Groundwater

Status of Groundwater

  • The Dynamic Ground Water Resources of the country are being periodically assessed jointly by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and State Governments.
  • As per the 2020 assessment, Annual Extractable Ground Water Resource and Annual Ground Water Extraction for all uses are around 398 Billion Cubic Meter (BCM) and nearly 245 BCM respectively.
  • Data shows that Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and Daman & Diu are having stages of GW extraction more than 100%.
  • The Government of India is implementing Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) in the country.
  • First JSA was launched in 2019 in water stressed blocks of 256 districts which continued during the year 2021 (across the entire country in both rural and urban areas).
  • The primary aim of JSA is to effectively harvest the monsoon rainfall through creation of artificial recharge structures, watershed management, recharge and reuse structures, intensive afforestation and awareness generation etc.
  • Government has also launched Amrit Sarovar Mission on 24th April 2022. The Mission is aimed at developing and rejuvenating 75 water bodies in each district of the country as a part of celebration of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
  • The Central Government is implementing Atal Bhujal Yojana with an outlay of Rs. 6,000 crore, in collaboration with States, in certain water stressed areas of Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
  • The primary aim of the scheme is demand side management through scientific means involving the local communities at village levels leading to sustainable groundwater management in the targeted areas.

Schemes by state governments

Several States have done notable work in the field of water conservation/harvesting such as:

  • ‘Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban Abhiyan’ in Rajasthan, ‘Jalyukt Shibar’ in Maharashtra, ‘Sujalam Sufalam Abhiyan’ in Gujarat, ‘Mission Kakatiya’ in Telangana, Neeru Chettu’ in Andhra Pradesh, Jal Jeevan Hariyali in Bihar, ‘Jal Hi Jeevan’ in Haryana, and Kudimaramath scheme in Tamil Nadu etc