NITI Aayog, in its report titled “Composite Water Management Index” published in June 2018, had mentioned that 21 major cities were expected to run out of groundwater by 2020. This was based on the estimates of annual groundwater replenishment and its extraction without taking into account the groundwater availability in the deeper aquifers. Names of such cities as mentioned in the report are given at Annexure I.

The Dynamic Ground Water Resources of the country are being periodically assessed jointly by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and State Governments. As per the 2020 assessment, the State-wise details of ground water resources are given in Annexure II

Though Water is a State subject, Central Government has taken a number of important measures for conservation, management of ground water including effective implementation of rain water harvesting in the country, which can be seen at URL:http://jalshakti-dowr.gov.in/sites/default/files/Steps_to_control_water_depletion_Feb2021.pdf. Some of the important initiatives in this regard are also given at Annexure III. 

Government of India launched Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) in 2019 which continued during 2021 also to improve water availability including ground water conditions in the country. Further, the campaign “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain” (JSA:CTR) was launched by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 22 March 2021.

Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has formulated Model Building Bye Laws (MBBL), 2016 for the States to adopt measures suitable to local conditions, wherein adequate focus has been given on requirement of rainwater harvesting and water conservation measures etc. As per MBBL, all buildings having a plot size of 100 sq.m. or, more shall mandatorily include the complete proposal of rainwater harvesting. 33 States/ UTs have adopted the features of these Bye Laws.

In addition, a number of 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.

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

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BY/AS

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ANNEXURE-i

Cities likely to face water scarcity as per NITI Aayog report

 

S.No	State	City
1.	Delhi	Delhi
2.	Gujrat	Gandhinagar
3.	Haryana	Gurgaon, Yamunanagar
4.	Karnataka	Bangalore
5.	Madhya Pradesh	Indore, Ratlam
6.	Punjab	Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Mohali, Patiala
7.	Rajasthan	Ajmer, Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur
8.	Tamilnadu	Chennai, Vellore
9.	Andhra Pradesh	Hyderabad
10.	Uttar Pradesh	Agra, Ghaziabad

 

 

 

ANNEXURE II

 

STATE-WISE GROUND WATER RESOURCES OF INDIA, 2020 (in bcm)

S. No.	States / Union Territories	Total Annual Ground Water Recharge	Annual Extractable Ground Water Resource	Current Annual Ground Water Extraction			Stage of Ground Water Extraction (%)
				Irrigation	Industrial & Domestic	Total
1	Andhra Pradesh	24.15	22.94	6.60	1.03	7.63	33.26
2	Arunachal Pradesh	3.19	2.92	0.003	0.01	0.01	0.36
3	Assam	27.05	21.97	1.97	0.60	2.58	11.73
4	Bihar