Water being a State subject, initiatives on water management including conservation and artificial recharge to ground water is primarily States’ responsibility.

Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has prepared a conceptual document titled “Master Plan for Artificial Recharge to Ground Water – 2013” which provides information about area specific artificial recharge techniques to augment the ground water resources based on the availability of source water and capability of subsurface formations to accommodate it. The Master Plan envisages construction of about 1.11 crore artificial recharge structures in urban and rural areas at an estimated cost of Rs. 79178 crore. This comprises around 88 lakh recharge structures/ facilities utilizing rainwater directly from roof top and more than 23 lakh artificial recharge and rainwater harvesting structures for conserving surplus runoff to augment the groundwater resources. It is estimated that annually about 85,565 MCM of surplus run-off can be harnessed to augment the ground water.  The Master Plan is available in public domain and has also been circulated to the State Governments for its implementation. 

Besides, other steps taken by the Central Government for conservation of ground water are available at the following URL http://mowr.gov.in/writereaddata/GW_Depletion.pdf

Ground Water Resource Assessment of the country is being periodically carried out jointly by CGWB and State Governments.  The total annual replenish able ground water resource in 2011 was 433 billion cubic meter (BCM) and as per latest assessment (2013), the annual replenish able ground water resource of the country is 447 BCM.

During assessment year 2013, out of 6584 assessment units in the country, 1034 (15.7%) assessment units are categorized as “Over-Exploited”, whereas during assessment year 2011, the respective figures were 6607 and 1071 (16.2%).

This information was given by Union Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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