Nearly 22 per cent of underground water resources in the country have either dried up or are in the critical category, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said on Friday, November 22. 

“Of the total number of underground water resources in India, almost 22 percent of them are either dried up or on the verge of drying up, they are critically exploited. My government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken up an initiative to map the aquifers,” Shekhawat said.

He said that the government is committed to complete the mapping of all the groundwater resources in the country by the next two years, while work in the critically exploited districts is expected to be completed by March 2020.

“Agricultural sector consumes about 89% of available water resources in India. We really need to help farmers and create awareness among them so that they can move towards water use efficiency measures such as drip and sprinkler irrigation,” Shekhawat said. 

The minister also emphasised on the need to efficiently use water resources and noted that 10% of water saving in the agricultural sector now, would make it available for all users for the next 50 years. 

The ‘Dynamic Ground Water Resources Of India’ report of the Central Groundwater Board showed that 1499 out of 6881 assessed units in 2017 were in ‘over-exploited’ and ‘critical’ categories.  The report sought urgent change in the extraction pattern of groundwater and surface water interventions, The Times Of India reported. 

The highest number of water-stressed areas were in Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab and Haryana. “With the annual extraction of groundwater exceeding annual replenishment, it is time to improve demand-side management by taking multiple measures instead of only managing the supply side of water resources,” Shekhawat said. 

Shekhawat’s remarks come after a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and Australia’s MARVI (Managing Aquifer Recharge and Sustaining Groundwater Use through Village-level Intervention).

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that Rs 3.5 lakh crore will be spent in the next five years under the Jal Jeevan Mission, which aims to provide piped water (‘Har Ghar Jal’) to all rural households by 2024.

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