Groundwater Management for Climate-Resilient River Cities

Almost every city in India can claim to be a ‘river’ city – with a river running through or by it. Besides rivers, most Indian cities also house a variety of other waterbodies such as lakes, tanks etc. But with these surface waterbodies getting increasingly polluted, depleted or simply built over, cities have turned to groundwater to meet their needs – and unchecked, rapacious withdrawal of groundwater by them has led to plunging levels of the resource.

This is a situation which leaves cities in dire straits in these climate change-risked times. Changing rainfall patterns, reduced numbers of rainy days, and the incessant pressure on resources due to the maddening rate of urbanisation makes recharging of groundwater a major challenge.

Managing the groundwater that urban centres still have access to, thus, becomes critically important in this scenario, especially in terms of making these cities climateresilient. This involves mapping the aquifers, locating potential recharge zones and intelligently managing the extraction of groundwater. This also means understanding the changing rainfall patterns, soils, lithology, physiography and hydrogeology of the cities and towns.

THE TRAINING

This online training is a part of a three-year CSE sub-programme aimed at building capacity of cities in the Ganga basin and making them watersensitive. Under this, a series of interactions – from webinars workshops and trainings to field exposure visits, and knowledge conclaves – has been planned to engage with over 1,300 state and municipal functionaries and other sector players. The sub-programme is supported by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG). It is a part of the ongoing efforts by the NMCG for ensuring convergence of Namami Gange with other national missions like AMRUT 2.0, Smart Cities, SBM 2.0, HRIDAY, NULM, Atal Bhujal Yojana, Jal Jivan Mission and Jal Shakti Mission.

Thus, this online training will aim at building capacity of state/municipal functionaries and other sector players on issues, challenges and potential of groundwater management. It will focus on developing a sound understanding of groundwater context and typologies of India, and the challenges and significance of groundwater management in the urban context, specifically in the Ganga basin.

WHAT WILL THE PARTICIPANTS RECEIVE ON COMPLETION

• Training participation/ completion certificate
• One-year free subscription to Down To Earth magazine
• Top five scorers will get a 50 per cent refund of their training fee and will be invited to CSE’s training site in Nimli (Rajasthan) with a fully funded fellowship for one of the Centre’s upcoming residential training programmes.
• Gain access to a global network of practitioners under the School of Water and Waste, AAETI.

FOR FURTHER DETAILS, PLEASE CONTACT

TRAINING COORDINATOR

Vivek Kumar Sah
Programme Officer, Water Programme, CSE
vivek.sah@cseindia.org
Mob No: + 91 9708887214/ 9773834911