Necessity for Groundwater Management in India

India’s Staggering 89% Dependence on Groundwater for Drinking Water: Management or Mismanagement?

January 2026 marks a critical juncture in India's groundwater governance, as alarming data from the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) reveal that groundwater meets 85% of rural drinking water needs and sustains 62% of irrigation demands. These numbers alone hint at the scale of reliance, but they also underscore the precarious nature of this unseen resource, which is rapidly depleting under the twin pressures of over-extraction and contamination. India's moves toward solutions, including the Model Groundwater Bill adopted by 21 states, demand scrutiny for their efficacy, not just applause.

India's Institutional Architecture for Groundwater Management

Governance of India’s groundwater resources is anchored by a complex institutional and legal framework. At the national level, the Ministry of Jal Shakti and its nodal agency, the CGWB, monitor resource availability and quality through a vast network of 43,228 groundwater-level monitoring stations spread across the country. Groundwater management initiatives are housed within broader programmes designed to fulfill Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation), SDG 11 (Sustainable cities), and SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production).

The policy framework includes pivotal instruments such as:

• The Model Groundwater Bill, offering states regulatory tools to curb over-abstraction.
• Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal), a five-year programme with a ₹6,000 crore outlay focused on community-driven, sustainable water management.
• NAQUIM 2.0 (2023-present), aimed at furnishing high-resolution aquifer data to address water stress at the Panchayat level.

Yet such initiatives often falter in execution. For instance, while NAQUIM 2.0 provides critical data for groundwater management, the ability of Panchayats to utilize high-resolution inputs remains uneven. Weak institutional capacity and variability in local governance are among the factors impeding nationwide effectiveness.

The Ground Reality: Numbers versus Narrative

The surface promises of India's groundwater governance hide deeper, systemic flaws. Changes in groundwater use are driven by a forceful confluence of intensive agriculture, affordable drilling technology, and policy inaction on enforcement. The Open Wells and Bore Wells proliferation has been enabled without adequate regulatory oversight, particularly in high-demand states like Punjab and Haryana.

Additionally, groundwater quality is undermined by contamination due to industrial effluents, unchecked mining, and fertiliser runoff. A study by IIT Kanpur found arsenic contamination in water sourced from hand pumps in states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, posing urgent public health risks. While the Master Plan for Artificial Recharge (2020) provides terrain-specific recharge strategies, it is underfunded relative to the scope of the problem.

Even flagship programmes like Atal Bhujal Yojana, with ₹6,000 crores allocated, face challenges in incentivizing sustainable groundwater practices. Community participation, on paper, is a central pillar of this scheme, but grassroots awareness remains limited. Farmers, often driven by income pressures, continue to overdraw water without understanding aquifer thresholds.

Structural Friction: Centre-State Imbalances

The gap between intent and execution in groundwater governance is emblematic of broader tensions in India’s federal structure. Water management, under the Constitution, falls within the ambit of states, yet the Centre's role has increasingly expanded through schemes such as Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain. While 21 states have adopted the Model Groundwater Bill, enforcement varies widely, with many states reluctant to impose restrictions owing to political sensitivities around agricultural electorates. Punjab’s overextraction for rice cultivation exemplifies this dilemma, where economic imperatives conflict with ecological sustainability.

Inter-ministerial coordination adds another layer of complexity. For example, decisions on groundwater extraction often involve the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environment, and state-level irrigation departments, but horizontal alignment between stakeholders is seldom achieved. This institutional fragmentation results in piecemeal approaches rather than integrated resource management.

An International Lens: Can India's Overdraft Crisis Learn From Australia?

Australia offers a contrasting approach where groundwater governance includes clear caps on extraction implemented through its Water Act 2007. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority uses scientifically derived thresholds to limit usage and ensure aquifer sustainability. Importantly, Australia embraces water pricing—in part to discourage over-extraction—while compensating farmers for adopting conservation practices. India, by contrast, has resisted groundwater pricing on the premise that it places an undue burden on small farmers. The absence of such an economic deterrent here exacerbates reckless abstraction.

Defining Success: Metrics India Must Track

What would effective groundwater management actually look like? A functional system would require robust aquifer mapping, equitable pricing, recharge infrastructure, and strictly enforced usage caps. Metrics for evaluation should include reduction in water table depletion rates, improvements in drinking water quality (reduced arsenic/fluoride contamination levels), and adoption of conservation practices by farming communities, particularly in water-stressed regions.

Moreover, success depends heavily on state-level commitment, which remains uneven. States such as Rajasthan and Gujarat, active under Atal Jal, provide promising case studies, but broader replication hinges on enhancing governance capabilities across the board.

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