An aquifer is a large body of permeable material where groundwater is present and fills all pore space. Several aquifer units are combined into aquifer systems based on some common characteristic like rock type or river basin.

Based on the hydro geological characteristics, India has been classified into 14 principal aquifer systems and 42 major aquifers, Alluvium being the major aquifer system in India.

Need to demarcate aquifers to plan sustainable Aquifers:

• Intensive and unregulated groundwater pumping in many areas causing rapid and widespread groundwater decline.
• Estimating the quantity and quality of ground water in an aquifer.
• Assessment of sustainable level of ground water extraction.
• Making the country climate change resilient.

There has been a paradigm shift from “groundwater development” to “groundwater management”. An accurate and comprehensive micro-level picture of groundwater in India through aquifer mapping and demarcation will enable robust groundwater management plans at the appropriate scale to be devised and implemented for this common-pool resource.

Its benefits will be both scientific and social.

Scientific

• Information of water bearing formations.
• Assessment of water bearing capacity of different areas.
• Managing aquifer quality.
• Demand-Supply analysis.
• Strategies for Sustainable Management.
• Precise assessment of functional wells for agriculture, industries, drinking water purposes.
• Formation of Aquifer Management Unit.
• Preparation of Aquifer Management Plans for sustainable ground water management.

Social

• Will enable involvement of community and stakeholders which in turn would enable states to manage resources in an efficient and equitable manner.      
• Will result in better understanding of aquifers at community level. Scientific inputs and traditional wisdom together would ensure sustainable ground water resource management.
• Would ensure sustainable cropping pattern, thereby contributing towards food security.
• Will help achieving drinking water security, improved irrigation facility and sustainability in water resources development in large parts of rural and urban India .

Steps taken by the Government

1. Hydro geological studies by Central Ground Water Board to decipher the extents, characteristics, yield potentials and development prospects of important hydro geological units in the country.
2. A number of projects undertaken in major basins of India in collaboration with international agencies to carry out water balance studies in which groundwater regime of aquifers and its development prospects were studied.
3. Project for Aquifer Mapping and Management (NAQUIM) in 2012- using advanced technologies like heli-borne geophysical surveys , sophisticated softwares like RockWorks, ARC GIS, Modflow, Map Info etc. to prepare Management plans.

The final objective is to prepare Management Plans, in consultation with stakeholders and State Governments, which will identify the recharge and other measures to replenish the declining trend of groundwater and lay the course for their sustainable use and development.