Water being a State subject, efforts to conserve water including rainwater harvesting is primarily States’ responsibility. However, National Water Policy (2012) formulated by the Ministry of Jal Shakti, inter-alia, advocates conservation, promotion and protection of water and highlights the need for augmenting the availability of water through rain water harvesting, direct use of rainfall and other management measures. The National Water Policy (2012) has been forwarded to all State Governments/UTs and concerned Ministries/Departments of Central Government for adoption.

CGWB has prepared a report entitled “Groundwater Situations in Select Cities in India”. The report provides the demand and water supply information collected from the respective water supply department in the city and also analyses the groundwater situations in these cities. However, the cities of Maharashtra have not been taken up for the report preparation. A summary of the report, as provided by CGWB, is Annexure.

Jal Shakti Abhiyan was conducted in 2019 in 1592 blocks out of 2836 blocks in 256 water stressed districts of the country and was expanded as “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain” (JSA:CTR) in 2021 with the theme “Catch the Rain – Where it Falls When it Falls” to cover all the blocks of all districts (rural as well as urban areas) across the country. “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain” (JSA:CTR) -2022 campaign, the third in the series of JSAs, was launched by Hon’ble President on 29.03.2022 in all districts (rural as well as urban areas) of the country for implementation from 29 March, 2022 to 30 November, 2022 - the pre-monsoon and monsoon period.

The focused interventions of the campaign include (1) water conservation and rainwater harvesting; (2) enumerating, geo-tagging & making inventory of all water bodies; preparation of scientific plans for water conservation based on it (3) Setting up of Jal Shakti Kendras in all districts (4) intensive afforestation and (5) awareness generation.

NWM tied up with Department of Youth Affairs to spread awareness to cover 31,150 villages in 623 districts on JSA: CTR campaign using the vast network of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) and its youth clubs. The awareness generation drive by NYKS, started in December 2020, formed the foundation of the massive involvement of the people in the JSA: CTR campaign. NYKS have engaged over 3.82 crore people in 36.60 lakh activities in the campaign through activities like rallies, Jal Choupals, quizzes, debates, slogan writing competitions, wall writings etc. The power of the youth of the country is being tapped by involving Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangthan (NYKS) to sensitize the populace on different aspects of water management. Involvement of NYKS is extended in the JSA: CTR 2022 also to carry out their activities through their vast network in the country.

Also, the Information Education Communication activities are undertaken by the Ministry of Jal Shakti to disseminate the message of water conservation among the people. The social media team of the Department regularly creates informative posts regarding the water conservation and highlights the programmes/schemes of the Ministry on social media handles of the Department like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and KooApp. Further, press release on important events of Ministry is also shared regularly with Press Information Bureau (PIB).

This information was given by the Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Shri Bishweswar Tudu in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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ANNEXURE

REGARDING “WATER CONSERVATION IN CITIES”.

A summary of the report entitled “Groundwater Situations in Select Cities in India” by CGWB:

1. Water demand has been computed based on the projection of population of 2011 census and per capita requirement varying from 135 to 155 LPCD, as per the norms adopted by different agencies. The water supply is made either from surface water or groundwater or from both the resources.
2. Presently, water supply is from only surface water sources in Ajmer city. However, in six cities the water supply will be shifted to only surface water sources in future. These cities are Ajmer (Currently also), Gurugram (2028), Indore (2031), Amritsar (2035), Bikaner (2031), &Hyderabad (2050)
3. Presently water supply is from only groundwater in six cities (Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Ludhiana, Faridabad &Yamunanagar) and in future only in three cities, water supply is envisaged to be provided only by groundwater sources (Jalandhar, Faridabad &Yamunanagar)
4. In rest of the cities, water supply is made from both surface water and groundwater sources.
5. As indicated by the water supply departments, there is no gap in water supply and demand in 14 cities in 2021 (Gandhinagar, Ambala, Faridabad, Yamunannagar, Indore, Ratlam, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Bikaner, Chennai, Vellore, Ajmer & Ghaziabad). By 2041 also 14 cities will not have any gap and Ajmer & Ghaziabad having no gap in 2021 will face gap in water supply, while Patiala & Hyderabad will not have any gap due to augmentation in surface water sources.
6. Stage of Groundwater Extraction (SoE) more than 100% (Groundwater extraction exceeds the annual replenishment) in 13 cities(Delhi (360%), Faridabad (269%), Gurugram (300%), Bengaluru (141%), Amritsar (363%), Jalandhar (472%), Ludhiana (290%), Mohali (212%), Patiala (312%), Bikaner (239%), Chennai (100%), Hyderabad (294%), Ghaziabad (245%)), while it is between 90 & 100% in 01 city (Agra (93%), between 70 & 90% in 08 cities (Gandhinagar (88%), Ambala (72%), Yamunanagar (74%), Indore (84%), Ratlam (77%) , Jailsalmer (74%), Jaipur (90%), Jodhpur (87%)) & less than 70% in 02 cities (Ajmer (33%), Vellore (55%).
7. The cities, in which groundwater is envisaged to be the only source for water supply for future also, are already under severe stress (Jalandhar (SoE-472%), Faridabad (269%) &Yamunanagar (74%)) and alternate source of water supply is urgently required to regulate the already stressed aquifer.
8. In most of the area, whenever, there is a shortage, the individuals extract groundwater through wells to meet the demand, but may not be accounted for in the groundwater statistics. This is also reflected in the declining of water level at many places across the country.
9. Groundwater is replenishable resources and gets replenished every year on account of recharge from rainfall and other sources.
10. Recycle and Reuse have already been introduced in some cities and have to be made part of all master plan so as to make a system for supply of recycled water for uses other than human consumption and also simultaneously use IEC activities to bring in the changes in the mind set of people for the use of recycled water.
11. Waste disposal for liquid and solid waste in all urban and rural areas should be made mandatorily scientific to reduce the contamination of both surface and groundwater sources. CETP & STP should be made functional effectively, which will go long way in cleaning the rivers across the country.
12. Rainwater Harvesting to be made mandatory and it can augment the groundwater system either through recharge or through conservation (when harvested rain is used instead of groundwater-water conserved is water saved) but cannot be seen as replacement for storm water drains.
13. Master Plan for Artificial Recharge to Groundwater- 2020 has been prepared by CGWB in consultation with States/UTs which is a macro level plan indicating various structures for the different terrain conditions of the country including estimated cost. The Master Plan envisages construction of about 1.42 crore Rain water harvesting and artificial recharge structures in the country to harness 185 Billion Cubic Metre (BCM) of monsoon rainfall. The Master Plan for Artificial Recharge to Groundwater- 2020 has been circulated to all the States/UTs for implementation and also hosted at the website of CGWB (http://cgwb.gov.in/Master%20Plan%20to%20GW%20Recharge%202020.pdf

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