World Bank approves funding for Atal Bhujal Yojana

Aim 

The scheme has been formulated by the Water Resources Ministry to address the criticality of ground water resources in major country parts.

It aims to improve ground water management in priority areas in the country through community participation. 

Key Objectives

• Ensuring active community participation in groundwater management.
• Ensuring active participation of the communities in various activities such as formation of Water User Associations, monitoring and disseminating ground water data, water budgeting, preparation and implementation of gram-panchayat wise water security plans and IEC activities related to sustainable ground water management.
• Enabling better understanding of the ground water regime.
• Enabling focused and integrated community-based approach for addressing issues related to ground water depletion.
• Enabling sustainable ground water management through convergence of on-going and new schemes.
• Adoption of efficient water use practices to reduce ground water use for irrigation and augmentation of ground water resources in targeted areas.

Priority Areas

The priority areas identified under the scheme fall in the states of Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. 

These states represent about 25 per cent of the total number of over-exploited, critical and semi-critical blocks in terms of ground water in India.  

They also cover two major types of groundwater systems found in India, alluvial and hard rock aquifers, and have varying degrees of institutional readiness and experience in groundwater management.

Funding

Under the scheme, funds will be provided to the states for strengthening the institutions responsible for the governance of ground water as well as for encouraging community involvement for improving ground water management to foster behavioural changes that promote conservation and efficient use of water. 

The funds will be made available to the participating states in form of grants.

Whom will it benefit? 

The implementation of the scheme is expected to benefit nearly 8350 Gram Panchayats in 78 districts of states that are facing severe shortage in ground water resources.