Advanced Residential Training Programme on 'Urban Groundwater Management'

Dates: Sept 21 - Sept 23, 2022
Last Date to Apply: Sept 15, 2022
Course Duration: Three days (24 hours)
Course Type: Residential
Venue: Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI), Nimli, Rajasthan

Background 
Groundwater is the most preferred source of water for various uses in India. It’s near universal availability, dependability, and low capital cost make it a reliable source of water. The increasing dependence on groundwater and indiscriminate extraction in various parts of the country, without taking into account the recharging capacities of aquifers and other environmental factors leading to the depleting water level, contamination, and mismanagement of the resource. 

Understanding groundwater is central to addressing the imploding water scarcity that is hitting both urban and rural India and is exacerbated by climate change. Understanding groundwater requires knowledge of lithosphere and potential aquifer profile, as well as the extraction, management, and governance regime. Urban groundwater management is a challenging task that is different for different levels of towns and cities in India, given the different aquifer typologies, climate, and extraction regimes. 

This online training is a part of a series of activities envisaged under a 3-year duration CSE programme – 'Capacity building initiative focusing on ‘Making Ganga basin cities water sensitive'. Under this initiative, a series of – webinars, workshops trainings (both online and residential), field exposure visits, and knowledge conclaves are aimed at engaging 1,300 + number state / municipal functionaries and other sector players. The programme is supported by National Mission for Clean Ganga and is part of the series of ongoing efforts by NMCG aimed at ensuring convergence of NamamiGange Mission with national flagship urban missions (AMRUT 2.0, Smart Cities, SBM 2.0, HRIDAY, NULM), and other missions (Atal BhujalYojana, Jal Jivan Mission, Jal Shakti Mission). 

TRAINING DESIGN 
The training will follow a mixed method approach involving lectures, in-class exercises, interactive discussions, and audio-video training support to understand urban groundwater resource and their management. The participants will get the opportunity to prepare a city water profile, city water balance plan, and groundwater recharge plan under the ‘Do It Yourself’ – group exercise. 

Aim
This is an Advanced urban groundwater management planning module for practitioners. The module fills a critical gap in providing a conceptual understanding of aquifers as a core to rural and urban groundwater management challenges. The course builds on the work done by practitioners and experts in India, on mapping groundwater in a few Indian cities. The course offers guidance for Planning for Urban Ground Water Management, by explaining and critiquing existing frameworks of Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) and City Water Balance (CWB). 

Training Highlights

• Develop an understanding of the fundamental concepts of Groundwater and Aquifer.
• Assessment and Mapping of Aquifers
• Evolution, critique, and application of MAR (Managed Aquifer Recharge); WSUDP (Water Sensitive Urban Design and Planning), and CWB (City Water Balance Plan)
• Exercises/Practice in planning and designing groundwater recharge
• Develop an understanding of enabling institutional, regulatory, and policy frameworks, stakeholder mapping, and community engagement.

Training Director

Depinder Singh Kapur
Director
Water Programme, CSE
+91-11-40616000 (Ext: 286)
Email: dkapur@cseindia.org

Training Coordinator

Charu Upadhyay 
Deputy Programme Manager
Water Programme
+91-11-40616000 (Ext: 312)
Email: charu,upadhyay@cseindia.org