Environment › Pollution
Groundwater and water conservation
Groundwater and water conservation: how the water drawn is measured against what is recharged, the regulation of extraction, recharge and rainwater harvesting, and water policy. Prelims has asked about the Central Ground Water Authority and which body was constituted under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
UPSC has asked
- Prelims 2022: the body constituted under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
- Prelims 2020: the Central Ground Water Authority and groundwater irrigation
10 Aug 2026 · Prelims and Mains
Dynamic Ground Water Resources Assessment
India does not measure its groundwater as one national pool, because an aquifer is emptied locally and refilled locally. The Central Ground Water Board counts it with the States unit by unit, so that a comfortable average cannot hide a district drawing more than it recharges.
- The Dynamic Ground Water Resources Assessment is the Central Ground Water Board's yearly stocktaking with the States, made unit by unit rather than for the country as a whole.
- Each unit is graded safe, semi critical, critical or over exploited by its stage of groundwater extraction, which the 2025 Assessment put at 60.63 per cent for India as a whole.
- Annual recharge is 449 billion cubic metres, of which 408 billion is extractable and 247 billion is extracted.
- Irrigation takes 87 per cent of what is extracted, domestic use 11 per cent and industry 2 per cent.
- Extraction runs above the national average in 281 districts and in nine States and Union Territories, among them Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi.
PIB, 10 Aug 2026: Groundwater assessment 2025 (opens in a new tab)
3 Sep 2026 · Prelims and Mains
Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari
Where a unit is drawing more than it recharges, the cheapest response is to lead rainwater back underground, and that is work a village can do for itself. Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari pays for it and leaves the structure with the community that built it.
Chhattisgarh, Korea district
- Aawa Paani Jhoki: farmers gave 5% of their land to recharge ponds and pits
- Groundwater up 3 to 4 metres in many villages
Andhra Pradesh, Prakasam district
- Ridge to valley: treating rainwater from the higher ridges down to the valley
- Water budgeting and crop planning
Odisha
- CHHATA (Community Harnessing and Harvesting of Rainwater Artificially from Terrace to Aquifer): rooftop rainwater harvesting
- ARUA (Artificial Recharge to Underground Aquifer): recharge from ponds and water bodies
- Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari (JSJB), launched in September 2024, builds low cost artificial recharge structures with the community as their owner, guided by the 3Cs of Community, Corporate Social Responsibility and Cost.
- It merged with Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain in June 2026.
- More than 1.58 crore recharge structures had been built in its first two years.
- Structure counts measure effort rather than outcome, so aquifer levels and demand side measures are the test of it.
PIB, 3 Sep 2026: Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari: From Local Action to Water Security (opens in a new tab)