NITI Aayog released the 2025 report “Water Budgeting in Aspirational Blocks” to operationalise block-level, data-driven water planning through the Varuni web platform for achieving Water Vision@2047.

• The Application for Water Budgeting has been piloted in 18 aspirational Blocks across varied state/ agro-climatic zones in India.
• A comparative analysis of the water budgets across the 18 Blocks is also presented.

What’s Water Budgeting?

• A scientific accounting framework that quantifies all water inflows, outflows, storage and transfers within a defined geography to assess demand–supply balance.

• Core Components:
  • Demand: Human (55/150 Litres Per Capita Per Day (LPCD) norms), Livestock (ICAR norms), Agriculture (CWR 0.50 m), Industry.
  • Supply: Surface water (Ponds, tanks, reservoirs), Groundwater (IN-GRES data), Rainfall-based runoff (Strange’s Table), and Inter-basin transfers
  • Balancing supply and demand: The data is used to compare the total water available against the total water required. 
    • This comparison can highlight whether there is a surplus or a deficit
• Significance
  • Ensures scientific planning at block/village level.
  • Enables early identification of deficits and hotspots.
  • Facilitates climate-resilient water management.
  • Supports integrated resource use across sectors like agriculture, drinking water & industry.

Key Highlights of the Report 

• Introduction of Varuni Platform: It is an automated web application which will help to quantify the gap between water demand and supply and identify the hotspots in water consumed across sectors.
  • Role of Indo-German WASCA Project: The Indo-German collaboration (GIZ India–MoJS–MoRD) developed a scientific and user-friendly block-level water budgeting framework, which evolved into the Varuni Web Application.
  • The platform removes manual calculation errors and standardises water budgeting methodology across India.
  • Potential: The application enhances accessibility to required datasets and has potential for raising awareness among stakeholders about water management, serving as a valuable tool for addressing India’s water security challenges through informed, data-driven planning.
• Dataset for Water Budgeting: It uses publicly available datasets to keep the method simple, scalable, and administratively implementable at the Block level, chosen as the most practical planning unit.
  • Rationale for a Simplified Method: Globally (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Italy, UAE, USA), water budgets rely on advanced satellite or remote sensing inputs. 
    • However, these methods are too complex for field-level application. 
    • This necessitated the creation of a simple, automated, web-based approach (Varuni) that uses authentic public datasets for real-time budgeting.
• Comprehensive Piloting Across India: The pilot covers 18 Aspirational Blocks across 11 States & 8 agro-climatic zones
  • It ensures representation of highly diverse physiographic settings like Himalayan cold deserts, coastal belts, alluvial Gangetic plains, Bundelkhand’s hard-rock terrains, and western arid zones. 
  • This diversity allows comparative understanding of region-specific water stress patterns.
• Comprehensive Demand-Side Framework:
  • Human demand: Calculated using 55 Litres Per Capita Per Day (LPCD) (rural) & 150 Litres Per Capita Per Day (LPCD) (urban), with 20% conveyance loss factored. Annual population projections use decadal growth of 25%.
  • Livestock demand: Based on ICAR-standard coefficients for each species; crucial given that livestock contributes significantly to rural household economies (e.g., Nirmand has >31,000 animals).
  • Agricultural demand: Uses crop water requirement fixed at 0.50 m based on national averages, covering nearly 70–90% of block water needs in most regions.
  • Industrial demand: Incorporated through manual block-level inputs due to data gaps.
• Comprehensive Supply-Side Framework: The report integrates multiple supply sources like surface water (ponds, tanks, reservoirs), groundwater (IN-GRES data), and inter-basin transfers (canals, drinking water grids).
• • Runoff estimation uses Strange’s Table to classify catchments into Good/Average/Poor.
  • Surface water availability is derived from the first nationwide Water Bodies Census covering 24.24 lakh structures, with ponds forming 59.5% of the total.
  • Groundwater extraction status is mapped as Safe/Semi-critical/Critical/Over-exploited for each block.
  • Water Transfers: Includes canals, irrigation projects, JJM pipelines, and industrial supply systems, captured through district/block-level inputs (since not fully available publicly).
• Region-Specific Outcomes:
  • Highest Deficits: Namchi (94%), Gangiri (60%), Baldeogarh (53%), Andimadam (42%).
  • Himalayan Blocks (Nirmand, Rupsho) show surplus water due to abundant glacier/spring-fed sources but limited irrigated area.
  • Gujarat’s Kukarmunda, despite the massive Ukai Dam capacity (3,90,514 ha.m), still draws 96% of water from groundwater—indicating behavioural and infrastructural dependence.
  • Bundelkhand blocks show highest water stress due to hard-rock aquifers and low storage potential.

Systemic Water Management Challenges

• Gangetic Plains Overdependence: Blocks such as Fatehpur, Gangiri, Kotwali, Nindaura show high agricultural usage and groundwater dependence. 
  • Many blocks face chronic irrigation dominance (rural areas) where agriculture uses 80-90% of water water demand (e.g., Fatehpur = 88%, Kukarmunda = 90%). 
  • This leaves the negligible buffer for domestic and ecological needs.

• Over-extraction of Groundwater: Blocks like Kotri and Abu Road are in the over-exploited category (>100%), signalling unsustainable withdrawals. 
  • Even Safe blocks (e.g., Kukarmunda: 68.7% SOE) show very high dependence despite large surface-storage availability.
• Under-utilisation of Surface Water Bodies: Fatehpur uses <5% of its harvested 2,116 ha.m stored water for productive use. Kukarmunda hardly uses Ukai Dam for local irrigation, depending instead on groundwater. This highlights infrastructural inefficiency and poor canal network utilisation.
• Ecological Vulnerabilities:
  • Coastal Region Stress: Blocks like Gangavaram and Andimadam experience low irrigation coverage, salinity intrusion, and high reliance on surface sources, requiring groundwater quality protection and demand management.
  • Himalayan & Cold Desert Vulnerabilities: Blocks like Namchi, Nirmand, Rupsho depend on spring–glacier systems. 
    • Despite surplus in Nirmand & Rupsho, Namchi faces a large deficit (94%), highlighting limits in spring discharge and the urgency for conservation.
  • Acute Scarcity in Arid/Semi-Arid Zones: Rajasthan & Bundelkhand blocks face chronic scarcity, high evaporation, low recharge, and overextraction (>100%) in Kotri & Abu Road. 
    • Baldeogarh shows the worst deficit (-11,237.5 ha.m)
• Data Gaps and Monitoring Challenges:
• • Absence of industrial water-use data.
  • Lack of inter-basin transfer quantification in public datasets.
  • Missing datasets for spring discharge, glacier melt, and small streams. These inhibit full hydrological closure at the block scale.
• Inadequate Community-Level Water Governance:  Despite JJM – Jal Jeevan Mission and PMKSY – Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana mechanisms, water user associations, Pani Samitis, and local monitoring remain weak, limiting implementation of budgeting recommendations.

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Key Action Points 

• Water Deficit Prioritisation: Severe deficits identified in Namchi (94%), Gangiri (60%), Baldeogarh (53%), Andimadam (42%), Abu Road (41%), Kukarmunda (37%), Kotri (21%), Chhaigaon Makhan (14%), Kotwali (11%) demand urgent, block-specific interventions
• Strengthen Irrigation Efficiency:  Introduce micro-irrigation, crop diversification, and regulated pumping in blocks where irrigation constitutes >80% demand. 
  • This is crucial in Gangetic (Fatehpur), plateau (Chhaigaon Makhan) and semi-arid (Kotri) regions.
• Region-Specific Water Strategies:

• • Coastal blocks: Promote artificial recharge, salinity barriers, conjunctive use, and protection of freshwater lenses.
  • Bundelkhand: Scale up check dams, percolation tanks, and watershed treatments to improve hard-rock aquifer recharge.
  • Himalayan blocks: Expand spring-shed management akin to Sikkim’s Dhara Vikas model to safeguard drying springs.
  • Arid regions (Rajasthan): Prioritise canal network rehabilitation and aquifer recharge through appropriate zoning.
• Overexploitation Control: Blocks where groundwater extraction exceeds 100% (Kotri, Abu Road) must implement:
• • Groundwater abstraction regulation
  • Artificial recharge structures
  • Pumping control and Community monitoring
• Optimise Surface Water Usage: Many blocks under-utilise available surface water; hence:
  • Rehabilitate canals, tanks, lift irrigation systems.
  • Enable equitable distribution via command-area development.
  • Promote piped conveyance to reduce seepage.
• Groundwater Regulation and Recharge:
  • Enforce groundwater abstraction controls in over-exploited blocks.
  • Mandate recharge pits, contour trenches, and farm ponds.
  • Integrate IN-GRES data with local monitoring stations for real-time tracking.
• Strengthen Varuni-Based Planning: Integrate Varuni outputs into JJM Village Action Plans, PMKSY-WDC works, MGNREGS water conservation, District Irrigation Plans, and local governance-led monitoring.
• Community-Centric Water Governance: Empower Gram Panchayats to maintain water logs, regulate withdrawals, and perform seasonal water audits.
  • Encourage behavioural shifts towards water conservation through IEC programmes.

Conclusion

Water budgeting enabled through Varuni provides a scalable, scientific foundation for India’s transition to climate-resilient, equitable and sustainable water security by 2047.

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