Groundwater

Featured Articles
January 17, 2021
2020: Crammed in disasters, yet filled with hope
Last year was shrouded with a myriad of disasters but all was not bad. There were many success stories and great efforts in the water sector that maintained our hopes for a better tomorrow.
All was not negative for 2020 in the water sector as many states and districts gained credit for themselves (Image Source: IWP Flickr Album)
November 8, 2020
Breaking down data silos in the water sector
The National Hydrology Project has created a national platform for water data and is working to enhance the technical capacities of agencies dealing with water resources management.
Breakthrough cloud computing facilities and remote sensing applications have helped showthe filling pattern of a water body (tank or reservoir) through freely available satellite imagery at an interval of five days. (Image: Maithan dam, Wikimedia Commons)
December 19, 2019
Parliamentary committee expresses disappointment over slow pace of Namami Gange
Policy matters this week
The Ganga at Varanasi (Source: India Water Portal Flickr Photos)
December 18, 2019
Micro-irrigation and groundwater use
A study from Gujarat finds that micro-irrigation combined with metered power led to a reduction in uncontrolled groundwater extraction by farmers.
Micro-irrigation and its impact on groundwater (Image Source: India Water Portal)
December 13, 2019
Trading in virtual water
A study highlights the need to scale down the export of rice, maize, buffalo meat and other items to conserve groundwater in India.
A farmer uses a hosepipe to irrigate crops at her farm in Nilgiris mountains, Tamil Nadu (Image: Hamish John Appleby for IWMI, Flickr Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
December 11, 2019
NGT orders 100 percent treatment of sewage entering rivers
Policy matters this week
Polythene bags and solid waste left behind as water recedes in the Ganga river. (Source: India Water Portal on Flickr)
IUKWC Virtual User Engagement Initiative 2020
The India UK Water Centre welcomes you to a free, online event to engage with new water research tools and methods that could contribute to your operational practice. Swati Bansal posted 4 months 1 week ago

IUKWC has put together a set of interviews with researchers from six Indo-UK projects that provide an overview of their research outputs and how these can support water operations, management and/or decision making.

Fully interactive - interviewees will be available to answer your questions during two hour windows
Drying veins of Ganga: Can we have ‘Nirmal Ganga’ with dying tributaries?
There is an urgent need to prioritise uninterrupted river flow over unpolluted flow in the Namami Gange programme. Amita Bhaduri posted 4 months 2 weeks ago

India’s Himalayan rivers have been a cradle of civilisational development and a centre for faith and culture for ages. Ganga being a fertile basin has been a significant contributor to our agricultural economy as well as our river-based agrarian development.
The Baand river is nearly dry even when the region saw above normal monsoon this year. Much of the riverbed is encroached by farms. (Image: Adeel Khan and Praharsh Patel)
Arghyam is looking for a Mission Leader - Partner Engagements
Arghyam is looking for a motivated, passionate and hands on leader to work with actors in the water ecosystem to enable the scale of solutions to solve water crisis in India. Swati Bansal posted 4 months 4 weeks ago

About Arghyam 
Groundwater extraction: NGT gets strict with commercial entities
Policy matters this week Swati Bansal posted 5 months ago

NGT bans granting general permissions for groundwater extraction to commercial entities
NGT gets strict with commercial entities (Source: IWP Flickr album)
Banking on rainwater harvesting
National Water Mission’s campaign aims at creating rainwater harvesting structures in various parts of India. Amita Bhaduri posted 5 months ago

National Water Mission’s (NWM) has launched a campaign ‘Catch the rain’ on a pan India basis to nudge the states and stakeholders to create appropriate rainwater harvesting structures (RWHS) suitable to the climatic conditions and sub-soil strata before the onset of monsoon.
As a part of the campaign, work is being done on various interventions such as water for productive use, improving irrigation practices, creating water recharge structures (Image: Pikist)
Understanding Atal Bhujal Yojana through the program guidelines
The program envisages promoting panchayat led groundwater management and behavioural change with a primary focus on demand-side management. Amita Bhaduri posted 5 months 1 week ago

Groundwater fulfills the drinking water requirements of nearly 85% and 50% of the rural and urban Indian population, respectively. 65% of the total irrigated area utilizes groundwater. It also caters to the water needs of the industrial sector in India.
Community participation is expected to facilitate bottom-up groundwater planning process to improve the effectiveness of public financing and align implementation of various government programs on groundwater in the participating states (Image: Water Alternatives, Flickr Commons)
Money, migration and missing capital: The case of Uttarakhand
In times of heightened interest in migration and migrants, a lecture deals with key issues underpinning it. Amita Bhaduri posted 5 months 2 weeks ago

Uttarakhand’s rural areas are marked by massive outflux of people and it is believed that rural migration may alter the state’s political geography.
Village in Uttarakhand (Image: Paul Hamilton; Flickr Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Green court slams centre over groundwater withdrawal in dry areas
Policy matters this week Swati Bansal posted 5 months 3 weeks ago

NGT slams centre over groundwater extraction in dry areas
A well in Rajasthan (Source: IWP Flickr photos)
Bringing springs to life: Ensuring water security for Baigas in Madhya Pradesh
To ensure year-round availability of drinking water for the Baigas, an initiative bring back springs to life in the region through community participation. Swati Bansal posted 6 months ago

Nested amongst the Satprura hills lies Kapoti, a village in the Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh. This region is known as Baiga Chak and is inhabited by Baigas, a vulnerable tribal group.
Children wash hands at a stand post installed in a Primary school at Kapoti Village in Karanjiya, Dhindori, Madhya Pradesh, India (Source: WaterAid India)
Tank desiltation scheme in Maharashtra: Policy concerns and way forward
Maharashtra has been implementing the Gaalmukt Dharan, Gaalyukt Shivar Yojana (GDGS) scheme since 2017. How has it fared and what needs to be done to improve it further? aartikelkar posted 6 months 1 week ago

Tank systems of India
Desiltation activities undertaken under the GDGS in Maharahstra (Image Source: NASHIKONWEB.COM)
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