The World Bank has approved India’s ₹6,000 crore scheme that aims to improve groundwater management in priority areas throughout the country.
The Union Water Resources Ministry announced that this shall be done through community participation over a period of 5 years from 2018-23.
The ministry will soon approach the Cabinet to obtain approval for the scheme— Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY). The priority areas being covered under the scheme are Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. These states together account for 25% of the total count of
over-exploited, critical, and semi-critical blocks figured for spring water accessibility in India.
According to the last assessment of the Central Spring Water Board (CGWB) 1,034 out of 6,584 assessed blocks within the country are over-exploited (and are usually referred to as ‘dark zones’). The assessment suggests that annual groundwater consumption (withdrawal) in those blocks is more than the annual groundwater recharge. 934 other blocks currently fall under different stages of criticality (critical and semi-critical) because of constant depletion without any recharge.
The Union Ministry said that the scheme is also being recommended and promoted by the expenditure commission of the government, and will be implemented with help from the World Bank.
“Implementation of the scheme is expected to benefit nearly 8,350 gram panchayats in 78 districts in these states. Funds under the scheme will be made available to the participating states as grants,” the Ministry stated.
Funds are going to be put to use to strengthen and support the institutions responsible answerable for groundwater governance, furthermore there will be efforts to encourage community involvement for working towards groundwater management.
The government has allotted ₹450 crore for this project within the budget for 2018-19. Further stepping up the ongoing projects, the ₹6,000 crore scheme will also work on setting up specialized infrastructure development, including building recharge structure\facilities for utilizing rain water, creating rain water harvesting structures for preserving surplus run-off and recharging groundwater in aquifers.
The theme envisages active participation of the local communities in numerous activities like formation of Water User Associations (WUA), observing and disseminating spring water information, water budgeting, preparation and implementation of ‘gram-panchayat’ wise water security plans, and activities concerning sustainable groundwater management.
“The scheme will also facilitate convergence of ongoing government schemes in the states by incentivizing their focused implementation in identified priority areas” said the ministry.
