National Compilation on Dynamic Ground Water Resources Of India, 2022

In news– The Union Minister of Jal Shakti hsa released the Dynamic Ground Water Resource Assessment Report for the entire country for the year 2022.

Key findings of the report-

The assessment was carried out jointly by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and States/UTs, which can be used for taking suitable interventions by various stake-holders.
As per the 2022 assessment report, the total annual ground water recharge for the entire country is 437.60 billion cubic meters (BCM) and annual ground water extraction for the entire country is 239.16 BCM.
Further, out of the total 7089 assessment units in the country, 1006 units have been categorized as ‘Over-exploited’.
A detailed analysis of the information collected from the assessment indicates increase in ground water recharge which may mainly be attributed to increase in recharge from canal seepage, return flow of irrigation water and recharges from water bodies/tanks & water conservation structures.
Further, analysis indicates improvement in ground water conditions in 909 assessment units in the country when compared with 2017 assessment data.
In addition, overall decrease in the number of over-exploited units and decrease in the stage of groundwater extraction level have also been observed.
The main source of replenishable ground water resources is recharge from rainfall, which contributes to nearly 61 % of the total annual groundwater recharge. India receives about 119 cm. of rain annually on average, with high spatial variation.
Over 75% of the annual rainfall is received in the four rainy months for June to September only thereby leading to large variations on temporal scale.
GroundWater Resources Assessment is carried out at periodical intervals jointly by State Ground Water Departments and Central Ground Water Board under the guidance of the respective State Level Committee on Ground Water Assessment at State Levels and under the overall supervision of the Central Level Expert Group.
Such joint exercises have been taken up earlier in 1980, 1995, 2004, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2020.
Assessment of water resources of the country dates back to 1901 when the First Irrigation Commission assessed the Surface Water Resources as 144 million hectare meters (M.ham) (NABARD, 2006).
In 1949, Dr. A. N. Khosla, based on empirical formulae, estimated the total average annual runoff of all the river systems of India including both surface and ground water resources as 167 M.ham (CGWB, 1995).