Minister of State for Jal Shakti Bishweswa Tudu on 27th March 2023, Monday said that Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) is periodically monitoring the groundwater levels throughout the country on a regional scale, through a network of monitoring wells.
In a written reply in Rajya Sabha on 27th March 2023, Monday, Mr Tudu said, to assess the changes in water level on a long-term basis, the data collected by CGWB during November last year has been compared with the decadal average from November 2012 to November 2021.
He said, analysis of water level data indicates that about 61.1 per cent of the wells monitored have registered a rise in groundwater levels. The Minister said, however, as per available information, the groundwater levels in certain parts of the country are declining because of continuous withdrawal necessitated by increased demand for freshwater for various uses, vagaries of rainfall, increased population, industrialisation and urbanisation.
He said, water being State subject, the efforts to address the declining groundwater levels fall under States’ mandate, however, a number of steps have been taken by Central Government in this regard. Mr Tudu said, the Government of India is implementing Jal Shakti Abhiyan JSA in the country. It was launched in 2019 in water-stressed blocks of 256 districts.
He said, It continued during the years 2021 and 2022 also across the entire country both rural and urban areas with the primary aim to effectively harvest the monsoon rainfall through the creation of artificial recharge structures, watershed management, recharge and reuse structures, intensive afforestation and awareness generation etc. He said, JSA for 2023 have been launched by the President of India on the 4th of this month with the theme “Source Sustainability for Drinking Water”.
The Minister said, Prime Minister launched Amrit Sarovar Mission on the 24th of April 2022 which is aimed at developing and rejuvenating 75 water bodies in each district of the country as a part of the celebration of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. He said, Central Government is implementing Atal Bhujal Yojana with an outlay of six thousand crore rupees, in collaboration with States, in certain water-stressed areas of Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
Mr Tudu said, 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. He said, Central Ground Water Authority has been constituted under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 for the purpose of regulation and control of groundwater by industries, mining projects, infrastructure projects etc in the country.
The Minister said, CGWB is implementing National Aquifer Mapping Program NAQUIM in the country, and an area of 25.15 lakh sq km of the available mappable area has been covered under the NAQUIM studies. He said, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs has formulated Model Building Bye Laws (MBBL), 2016 for the States and UTs, wherein adequate focus has been given to the requirement of rainwater harvesting and water conservation measures.
As per MBBL, all buildings having a plot size of 100 Sq.m. or, more shall mandatorily include the complete proposal of rainwater harvesting. 35 States and UTs have adopted the features of the Bye-Laws. Mr. Tudu said, Ground Water Resource Assessment in the country is periodically done by CGWB in collaboration with States and UTs. As per the assessment 2022, the total annual groundwater recharge for the country is 437.6 billion cubic meters (BCM), which is 5.74 BCM more as compared to the 2017 assessment of 431.86 BCM.