Groundwater and water conservation

Prelims and Mains

The Dynamic Ground Water Resources Assessment is the Central Ground Water Board's yearly stocktaking of groundwater with the States, made unit by unit rather than for the country as a whole.

• An aquifer is emptied locally and refilled locally, so a comfortable national average could hide a district drawing more than it recharges.
• Each unit is graded safe, semi critical, critical or over exploited by its stage of groundwater extraction.

Prelims and Mains

Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari (JSJB), launched in September 2024, builds low cost artificial recharge structures with the community as their owner.

• 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.
• It pays for that work and leaves the structure with the community that built it.
• It is guided by the 3Cs of Community, Corporate Social Responsibility and Cost.
• It merged with Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain in June 2026.
• Models from the States include Chhattisgarh's Aawa Paani Jhoki, Andhra Pradesh's ridge to valley treatment and Odisha's rooftop rainwater harvesting.
• Structure counts measure effort rather than outcome, so aquifer levels and demand side measures are the test of it.

Prelims and Mains

Atal Bhujal Yojana was a central scheme for community led groundwater management in water stressed blocks of seven States, in which every gram panchayat prepared a water budget and a water security plan.