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Punjab Govt’s groundwater conservation efforts bearing fruit, says Goyal
“The carrying capacity of the canal system is around 36,000 cusecs, Punjab has been regularly supplying around 39,000 cusecs of canal water since June 1 this year,” he added
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Punjab water resources minister Barinder Kumar Goyal on Monday said the state had registered a turnaround in its groundwater situation, with fall in levels reducing from 164% in 2022 to 152.22% in 2026, as reflected in the latest assessment of the Central Ground Water Board.
Addressing a press conference here, Goyal said the latest groundwater data clearly showed the impact of state government’s efforts as the annual groundwater extraction had declined from 28.02 billion cubic meters in 2022 to 26.32 billion cubic meters in 2026.
The minister attributed the slowing decline rate to groundwater recharge and reduced extraction. “Restoration of canals, rehabilitation and expansion of watercourses, laying of pipelines and ensuring that canal water reaches every tail-end field have further strengthened the state’s groundwater conservation efforts,” he shared.
The minister added that canal water utilisation, which was only around 26% until 2022, had now increased to 82%. “To achieve this transformation, the Punjab government has invested around ₹7,500 crore and constructed thousands of kilometres of watercourses,” he said.
“The carrying capacity of the canal system is around 36,000 cusecs, Punjab has been regularly supplying around 39,000 cusecs of canal water since June 1 this year,” he added.
He said Punjab had 153 groundwater assessment blocks categorised as safe, semi-critical, critical and over-exploited. Among them, four — Arniwala Sheikh Subanpur, Fazilka; Makhu, Ferozepur; Hajipur in Hoshiarpur and Narot Jaimal Singh, Pathankot — had improved from semi-critical to a safe zone as the groundwater extraction had declined considerably.
“10 more blocks improved from critical to semi-critical and from over-exploited to critical with declining extraction rates,” he said, adding that another 95 blocks had also shown improvement to varying degrees, which he described as a significant achievement for the state.
