29 districts in Raj, 19 in Punjab hit by overexploitation of groundwater: MoS

New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) Rajasthan and Punjab have the maximum number of 29 and 19 districts respectively, facing overexploitation of groundwater resources, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Monday.

Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Raj Bhushan Choudhary, in a written reply, shared details related to the 193 Over Exploited, Critical and Semi Critical (OCS) districts as per National Compilation of Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India, 2024.

He said UP has 38 OCS districts out of which 5 are Over Exploited, Rajasthan has 29 OCS districts which are all Over Exploited, Tamil Nadu has 22 OCS districts out of which 9 are Over Exploited, Punjab has 20 OCS districts out of which 19 are Over Exploited and Haryana has 19 OCS out of which 16 are Over Exploited.

Out of the 193 OCS districts, 102 were identified as those facing the problem of overexploitation of groundwater resources, said Choudhary.

He said water, being a State subject, the primary responsibility for the augmentation, conservation, assessment and efficient management of water resources lies with the respective state governments. However, the Central Government supplements the efforts of the States through technical and financial support.

The MoS said the Dynamic Ground Water Resources of the country are assessed every year from 2022 jointly by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and State Governments to analyse trends in groundwater recharge and extraction.

He said as per the report of 'National Compilation of Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India, 2024', shared by CGWB, 102 districts are categorised as ‘Over- exploited’, 22 districts are categorised as ‘Critical’ and 69 districts are categorised as 'Semi-critical.'

Elaborating on water conservation efforts, the MoS said the Ministry launched the Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) in 2019 as a time-bound, mission-mode water conservation campaign in 256 water-stressed districts of the country.

The 'Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain' (JSA:CTR) was launched in 2021 with the tagline “Catch the Rain – Where it Falls When it Falls”. The Abhiyan was scaled up to cover all districts, blocks, and municipalities across the country.

Although the JSA:CTR campaign is implemented nationwide, each edition has included a targeted focus since 2023 to maximise impact, he said.

The JSA:CTR 2023, with the theme 'Source Sustainability for Drinking Water,' prioritised 150 special focus districts identified by the Jal Jeevan Mission, said the MoS

--IANS

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