Residential Training “Replenishing Lakes and Aquifers”

Dates: July 29-31, 2025

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) conducted a three day residential training on “Replenishing Lakes and Aquifers” from July 29-31, 2025.

The training was aimed to capacitate state / municipal functionaries and other sector players on issues, challenges, and management of lakes and groundwater in urban areas.

A total 28 participants attended the training, all of which were government officials from Urban and rural Local Bodies (ULBs) - Jal Nigam, SMCG, Watershed and groundwater department, CPWD, etc.

The training was conducted at CSE’s residential training campus, Anil Agarwal Environment Training Institute (AAETI), Nimli Rajasthan from July 29-31, 2025. 

The participants were invited to CSE main office, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, Delhi on July 28, 2025. The staff from CSE gave a brief introduction to the rainwater harvesting systems and decentralized wastewater management system (DWWTS) followed by the campus visit for live demonstration of the systems. After the lunch at CSE main office, all the participants were taken to the residential training campus, AAETI.

Training Day 1 (July 29, 2025)

The first formal session of the training was on “Introduction and icebreaking session on managing groundwater in river cities- gap and challenges” in which Sushmita Sengupta from CSE, talked about the issues in groundwater management and lake restoration. She emphasizes how urban expansionism led to commercialization of water, putting groundwater into stress. The lands got valued but less importance has been given to water, especially groundwater and lakes, even though drinking water requirements are met through groundwater. Lake restoration is the need of the hour, and it must be escalated with concerns from all stakeholders. She presented the case studies from Uttar Pradesh where CSE has mapped the groundwater and lakes to understand their situation. She discussed about the possible solutions to make the lakes and groundwater sustainable.

Post the session, the participants were involved in groups to bringforth the challenges and opportunities on the ground and brainstorm the solutions over a period of 3 days. Post which Swati Bhatia talked about the existing acts, policies, guidelines on lakes and groundwater to understand how it applies to various stakeholders, find the overlaps and challenges which affect the working on the ground. Also knowledge of the existing policies and guidelines help address the challenges on the ground. Addressing stakeholders and their role in conservation and restoration process is important and hence the next part of the session talked about addressing all possible stakeholders’ right from data collection to implementation and monitoring process was discussed.

The third session talked about the good and wrongly done work on the ground, followed by discussion on the right approach to planning and design process. It is of utmost importance to address the problem to start the planning process failing which results into wastage of resources. Participants were given draft project reports as activity to read through and evaluate and include the learnings during the training process and present the findings as a group activity.

Post the lunch session Praveen Kumar G, Scientist-D, Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) talked about the aquifers and their management. The speaker detailed explained about the basics of aquifer mapping, their properties and major aquifer systems of India. He also talked about the different geophysical parameters which are used in aquifer mapping. At last he explains about the National Aquifer mapping and Management (NAQIM) initiative of Central Groundwater Board.

The day ended with Swati Bhatia explaining the live working models of rainwater harvesting systems,Decentralized wastewater management system, improved septic tank and soil biotechnology structures of AAETI campus.

Training Day 2 (July 30, 2025)

Day 2 started with Jairaj Rajguru from ACWADAM, Pune, talking about understanding of the aquifers in different terrains, its mapping and their management at city and district levels using advanced tools to identify recharge zones for creation of waterbodies and recharge pits. He used the case example of pune where using GIS and Remote Sensing, his team had identified usage of groundwater and identified precise recharge zone. This followed by a small handholding exercise for mapping aquifers and identifying potential sites for waterbodies for effective groundwater recharge.

Thereafter Pradeep Kumar Mishra, CSE talked the watershed and meteorological features to be taken into consideration during planning the restoration process. He briefed participants how hydrological calculations should be done to understand the inflow and outflow in the catchment areas and how using GIS tools catchment planning can be taken up. He also explained portals like WRIS, BHUVAN which can be used for data collection.

Post lunch participants were taken to the AAETI lab in the campus. During the lab visit they were detailed about various techniques, parameters and aspects on water quality testing by Sama Kalyana Chakravarty, CSE.

The last session was taken by Sachin Kumar, Technical Expert- Monitoring and Evaluation, Department of Land Resources on the implementation aspects, where he talked about various physical measures such as design of inlet and outlet, slopes and bund design, treatment measures, etc. He also talked about various on-ground implemented case studies. 

Post the sessions participants presented in groups the evaluation of draft project reports – to identify the missing aspects and what should be done to prepare a good draft project report. Their presentations reflected the learnings they gained over the training period

The best group was awarded with a CSE publication.

Training Day 3 (September 20, 2024)

The day 3 of the training was kept for field visit to understand the successful case studies of lake restoration. For this, the visit to Neela Hauz Biodiversity Park was organized by CSE in coordination with Delhi Development Authority (DDA).

The site has been rejuvenated by DDA and has been developed into a biodiversity park. Dr. Dinesh Albertson W., Field Biologist, Aravalli Biodiversity Park, DDA; explained about the site. He explained that the site was revived using natural ecological and low cost method nature based technologies. The removal of organics and inorganics is observed to a good extent. The revived lake is rich in biodiversity with many species of birds are observed. The lake rejuvenation has really improved the aesthetic, ecological, and environmental quality. He also explained about various plant species inside the park brought from across the country. There was a fruitful discussion with the participants. He patiently explained all the nuances about funding, technology and planning for the entire process. 

Post the field visit participants were taken to CSE campus where the training was closed with a post assessment quiz and feedback session, followed by lunch.