(a) whether the Government has taken note of the study conducted by IIT, Kharagpur recently, which apprehended that there is a possibility of drought like condition in maximum parts of the country by 2050 due to indiscriminate exploitation of ground water;
(b) if so, the details thereof; and
(c) the steps taken or scheme formulated by the Government to deal with this problem?
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR JAL SHAKTI & SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EMPOWERMENT
(SHRI RATTAN LAL KATARIA)
(a) & (b) Researchers from IIT, Kharagpur in collaboration with others have published technical papers on ‘long term groundwater recharge’ and ‘satellite-based estimates of usable groundwater storage’ in International Journals of ‘Hydrology and Earth System Sciences’, 2019 and ‘Advances in Water Resources’, 2019 respectively.
(c) Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) has been constituted under Section 3(3) of the ‘Environment (Protection) Act, 1986’ for the purpose of regulation and control of ground water development and management in the Country. CGWA grants No Objection Certificates for ground water abstraction, in 23 States/UTs, through guidelines which are modified from time to time. Rest of the States / UTs are regulating ground water development through their own Acts, notifications or Government Orders. Further, CGWA has also appointed the District Magistrate / District Collector of each Revenue District and Regional Directors of CGWB in these States as Authorized Officers, with power to enforce compliance of NOC conditions.
Government of India has launched the Jal Shakti Abhiyan which is a time bound campaign with a mission mode approach intended to improve water availability including ground water conditions in the water stressed blocks of 256 districts in India. In this regard, team of officers from Central Government along-with technical officers from Ministry of Jal Shakti have been deputed to visit water stressed districts and to work in close collaboration with district level officials to undertake suitable demand side and supply side interventions.
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As per information received from Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs, the Model Building Bye Laws, 2016, has been issued for guidance of the States/UTs which has a chapter on ‘Rainwater Harvesting’. The provisions of this chapter are applicable to all the buildings. 32 States / UTs have adopted the rainwater harvesting provisions. The implementation of the rainwater harvesting policy comes within the purview of the State Government/Urban Local Body / Urban Development Authority.
Central Government supports construction of water harvesting and conservation works primarily through Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana – Watershed Development Component (PMKSY-WDC) and PMKSY-Per Drop More Crop. Under these Schemes, 17,56,207 water conservation and recharging structures have been constructed at an expenditure of Rs.23,435.67 crore in the last three years.
In addition, for enhancing water use efficiency, the Central Government is promoting micro-irrigation systems, Command Area Development works, Participatory Irrigation Management, recycle and reuse of water amongst others.
Water being a State subject, initiatives on water management including conservation and artificial recharge to ground water in the Country is primarily States’ responsibility. The important measures taken by the Central Government for conservation, management of ground water and effective implementation of rain water harvesting in the country are at the following URL:
http://mowr.gov.in/sites/default/files/Steps_to_control_water_depletion_Jun2019.pdf
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