CENTRAL GROUND WATER BOARD
From Chairman’s Desk
With rapid population growth and changing life styles, the natural resources of our earth face increasing pressure. It is paramount that basic resources for human survival, viz. air, land and water must be properly managed. The quantity and quality of these resources are critical to ensure adequate food supplies and public health. In particular, the management of ground water resources has profound impact on society with regard to quality of life.
Self-sufficiency in food production through green revolution has been most outstanding achievements of the post independence era of our country. Ground water has played a very important role in scaling this achievement. Ground water generally being a reliable resource, its development has had tremendous implications for agricultural production and productivity as well as the livelihoods of millions of people. In our country, ground water is being exploited by a large number of farmers engaged in ground water irrigation. So far agencies involved in research activities related to ground water resources have given greater emphasis on development of this resource rather than management.
The lack of adequate attention to water conservation, efficiency in water use, water re-use, ground water recharge and eco-system sustainability has further aggravated the water scarcity problems. This leads to misgiving in certain sections that ground water availability scenario in the country has reached a critical stage and there is no scope for future development of ground water for irrigation. However, the fact is that, the overall stage of ground water development is only 58%. Even though signatures of overexploitation is seen in localized areas with 839 out of 5723 assessment units declared as overexploited, the primary issue today is of scientific management of ground water.In order to address the issues of ground water Central Ground Water Board has taken initiative for preparation of Aquifer maps of the country at 1: 50,000 scale or even large scale in some selected areas for ultimately evolving aquifer wise ground water management plans, on scientific basis. We are looking forward for the agencies involved in ground water development and management from State and Central Government along with the academic institutions who had a vast experience on research & development activities on scientific ground water management to work together and address the emerging challenges being experienced or likly to be experienced in near future.
Central Ground Water Board will work together with all stakeholder to achieve the vision of sustainable management of ground water resources in the country.
Dr.S.C.Dhiman
Chairman