Groundwater monitoring for sustainable water management

Rapid reduction in per capita water availability in the country is an alarming situation for population and a challenge for for sustainable water management. Groundwater is major resource for all usage in the country and become a backbone of development. Groundwater use varies drastically due to diverse hydrogeological conditions of the states and within the state offers the challenges for local level groundwater resource estimation and management. Periodic estimation of the invisible and threedimensional groundwater resources require monitoring of groundwater development, depletion and degradation of water quality in administrative units irrespective of present groundwater development status. To this end, monitoring networks require optimisation to generate the validated data required for periodical estimation regarding: defined objectives, dedicated monitoring of single aquifers, proximity analysis, watershed and altitude, water level and quality analysis. Valid estimation of groundwater resources facilitates sustainable water management and thereby contributes to sustainable development. The paper explains the essential criteria for the optimising ground water monitoring networks, and is illustrated with examples from the ongoing National Hydrology Project.