In the Dynamic Ground Water Resource Assessment-2023 report prepared by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), out of the total 780 districts in the country, 705 districts were assessed. Of the total districts assessed in the report, a shocking 98 districts were marked as ‘Over-Exploited’ having Stage of Ground Water Extraction (SoE) of more than 100% while 24 districts were put under the ‘Critical’ category which had ground water extraction between 90% to 100%. The water stressed pockets of the country having such districts was largely owing to unchecked consumption of ground water sans its commensurate replenishment through rainwater harvesting.
As per the report, out of the total 98 districts marked as ‘Over Exploited’ owing to over 100 percent extraction of ground water, Rajasthan had the maximum of 29 districts followed by Punjab (18), Haryana (16), Tamil Nadu (9), Uttar Pradesh (6), Karnataka (5), Delhi (5), Madhya Pradesh (5), besides 3 such districts in Union Territories of Dadra And Nagar Haveli
And Daman And Diu besides two in the state of Gujarat.
The report further revealed of the 24 districts marked as ‘Critical’, six were in Uttar Pradesh, followed by four in Delhi, three in Karnataka, two each in Punjab, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu besides one each in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
However, as per official reports, the silver lining to the crisis was that during the period between 2017 and 2024, annual ground water recharge in the country had increased from 436.15 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) to 446.90 BCM, whereas, total annual ground water extraction for all purposes had remained stable from 244.92 BCM to 245.64 BCM.
Further, the Stage of Ground water Extraction (SoE), which is defined as a ratio of total annual ground water extraction to total annual extractable ground water, has declined from 61.6% to 60.47%, thus indicating reduction in ground water stress.
Presently, out of 19.36 Crore rural households in the country, approximately 15.53 Crore (80.22%) households had been provided with safe drinking water through tap water supply, as on March 20, 2025.
