BY

K.KUMARESAN
and
A.SREENIVAS

HYDROGEOLOGISTS
 Individual perspective capacity
skills and capabilities of the individual
An organizations Capacity
achieve its mission and to sustain itself in the
long term
National perspective capacity
structures, systems, policies and
organizations which are helping it to
achieve its defined vision
 Develop & disseminate technologies
Monitor & implement national policies for
Scientific and sustainable development
&management of India s Ground water
resources including their
Exploration, Assessment, conservation,
augmentation, protection from pollution
Distribution based on the principles of
economic & ecological efficiency and equity
 Creation of an enabling environment with
appropriate policy and legal frameworks
Institutional development, including
community participation (of women in
particular)
Human resources development and
strengthening of management systems
Long-term, continuing process, in which all
stakeholders participate
 From a nations perspective - capacity
building is much more than training and
includes the following

Human resource development

Organizational development
Institutional and legal framework
development
 Capacity building usually begins with a
demand assessment mission
This mission reviews
existing monitoring and analysis efforts,
establishing a work programme,
a budget
the necessary institutional & legal structure
to manage the project
 Improved Governance
Project Management capacity
Academic and Research capacity
Legal capacity
System Integration capacity
Media capacity
NGO capacity
Citizen capacity
 In aquifer mapping Government is the
central to all functions and therefore the
internal capacity building of departments
(all CGWB and SGWD Officers) where aquifer
information and management plan is
getting implemented is very important.
 A Project Director with required
administrative and financial power to take
timely decisions for execution of the project
who will be stationed at New Delhi for proper
co-ordination with agencies involved and
states and MOWR.
A dedicated Project Secretariat under the
Project Director comprising a team of officers
from CGWB/other identified institutions
 A special cell with Nodal officer in Water
resources/ PHED department, and state level
steering committees may be constituted for
coordination.
Research and support Staff could be hired as
per rules.
 CGWB has started aquifer mapping with 6
pilot projects in various states. Therefore it is
very important that these projects are
managed with the professional competence.
Teams involved with aquifer mapping under
these projects are to be brought under
capacity building programme.
 With the growing need for professionals in
the field of ground water management it is
very important that academic institutions
must focus on this crucial subject.
Most of the management professionals have
to interact with CGWB and therefore it is very
crucial that the subject of Government is
taught in academic institutions
 Research is another field where the capacity
building is required in the field of aquifer
mapping. To take up the R&D programmes
infrastructure and laboratory facilities are to
be created and research and support staff can
be appointed or hired as per rules.
 Legal capacity building is another requirement
for aquifer mapping & management Capacity
Building in India.
Though CGWA is looking after the regulation
and control on ground water development and
management in the country by enacting under
the provisions made in various sections of
Environmental protection Act 1986 even then
strengthening the legal aspects and its efficient
application is very important.
 State Governments are also regulating
and controlling the excessive
exploitation by enacting and enforcing
the model bills on ground water
abstraction.
 Another important need is to
build the requirement of Systems
Integration (SI) organizations like
TCS, Wipro Infotech, HCL Info
systems,
 Media Hype is leading to failure of lot of
projects.
A single biased article in a
magazine/news paper can lead to lot of
problems for the project plan.
Therefore the media is educated on the
management plan in the right spirit.
Government must look into
strengthening Medias.
 The Government also ensure that the local
NGOs which have demonstrated delivery at
the village level are further strengthened .
NGOs are the key link between Government
and the stakeholders to propagate the govt.
policies to grass root level hence
strengthening of NGOs through proper
training is very important.
 Citizen awareness is the key to
success of any programme.
The citizens who are directly
interacting with Government have to
be made aware on the changes that
may be required after the changed
environment.
The key steps for a capacity building strategy for implementation of aquifer
information and management plan in India is as under:

Structure and Institutional Framework

Human Resource(HR) Policies
Central Database of Experts
Formation of Teams
Strengthening of Existing Organizations
Training Need Assessment
Funds for Capacity Building
Training Strategy
Forging Partnerships for Capacity
Building
Resource Exchange Programs
Sustainability Strategy
 The first step in Capacity Building for aquifer
management is creation of structures.
Further there is a requirement of multiple
institutions involved for implementation of
the plan in the country and the role of each
institutions should be defined clearly and an
overlap or / and clash of egos must be
avoided.
 To evolve HR policies that retain the talent in
an organization.
the role clarity of a job profile must be made
available before hiring of a talent,
regular feedback for improvement, Employee
Development initiatives, and biannual salary
hikes, are few steps that are required to
retain the talent.
The global best practices in HR must be
adopted to retain talent.
 The third step towards strategy for capacity
building will be creating of a database which
will list out national and international
resources on aquifer mapping and
management.
Such a data- base will help to identify skills
as may be required for a particular project.
The database must cover professionals from
all stakeholders, i.e., Government, NGO,
Private Sector, Consultants and academics.
 The next crucial step in the capacity
building exercise is to ensure
formation of teams.
It must be ensured that one individual
is included in one team only at State or
Central level.
 The next step towards Aquifer
mapping & management Capacity
Building Strategy is to strengthen
the existing organizations.
 Training Need Assessment is important part of
Aquifer mapping Capacity Building Strategy.
It must be ensured that the training needs of all
stakeholders as discussed above must be
ensured.
Further the training requirements for each group
have to be identified and it must be ensured that
the Department Staff is imparted the required
training well in advance.
Training Need Assessment will require National,
State and local level consultations with various
stakeholders.
 In many projects sufficient funds for training
and capacity building are not allocated.
The maximum amount of money is spent in
System Integration, Software Development
and hardware procurement.
It must be realised that the success of any
project depends not on Machine but the Man
behind the Machine.
It must be therefore ensured that minimum of
20-30% of budget is allocated to Capacity
Building and project planning.
 Training Calendar and Program, Training
Faculty, Training Content, Training Outcomes
are few such areas that need to be covered
under the Training Strategy.
Training timings and participants also need
to be identified in the course of
implementation of any Management Plan
initiative.
 forging partnerships for resources.
Resource Exchange Program between
Government, Private Sector, and Academia
may be encouraged to ensure that individuals
have a diverse experience for the complete
range of services offered.
 Individuals may also try to opt in
organizations which offer complete range of
services. A true management expert will need
to have a diverse experience of Government,
Consultancy Organization, multilateral
agency, academia, Software development
agency, System Integrator and technology
prospective.
 Any initiative is successful if it is
accompanied by a sustainability strategy. It
should not be that the initiative towards
capacity building is a one time affair but they
must be looked into a long term pros
This activity under capacity building is
proposed to be taken up by Rajiv Gandhi
Ground Water Training and Research Institute
in association with local and State institution
by outsourcing.
 Under the capacity building programme for
aquifer mapping three tier training programme
has been proposed under RGI.
Apart from this the overseas capacity building
schedule is proposed for RGI faculty & CGWB
experts.
State agencies, Institutions, NGOs, civil society
and stakeholders will be brought under capacity
building programme through training.
To support the capacity building programme,
R&D activity is also included in the programme
 At national level trainings are to be
conducted for central and State Agencies in
RGI Raipur. The number of courses will be
increased to suitably in the 12th five year
plan to accommodate professionals
engaged in aquifer mapping program
(Trainers of trainees).
 At the level of State courses of
one week duration are proposed
to be organised by outsourcing
during XIIth Plan under tier two to
train groundwater professionals /
NGOs / VOs.
 At the level of Aquifer management unit
(District / Block ) one to two days training
are proposed to train
stakeholders,
para-hydrogeologists &
individuals and local organisations having
knowledge of local area, who will be
engaged in implementing the Aquifer
management plan at grass- root level
 CGWB will provide training of trainers and
keep check of quality of aquifer mapping.

A project of this scale will require

significant investments in capacity building.
 Proposed Training & capacity Building
(Three Tier System)

National Level Officers of CGWB, other Central Govt., State

RGNGWTRI Govt.
Institutes & Organisations

State Level State, District officers, GO, VO & Post
State Support Centers Graduate, Science Graduates& related
Engineering stream Students

District Panchayat institiutions. NGO, VO, Students,
Support Self Working Groups & Stakeholders
Centers
 General

Two major issues to be addressed by capacity building

are:

1- Management of Groundwater

2- Monitoring (leading to sustainability of

Groundwater)
This Programme envisaged for building

1 * Capacity

2 * Skills

&

3 * Knowledge to ground water users

 1-Capacity Building

(1) Technical Up-gradation of Institutions

(2) Trainings personnel

(3) Strengthening NGOs

(4) Strengthening Para-Hydrogeologists

NAQUIM
1-Capacity Building

(1)
Technical Up-gradation of Institutions*
-Establishment, Foundation, Society etc
devoted to
Promotion of a particula
r cause
OR
Program

Public
Educational
charitable
Government dpts
.Research institutes
.PRIs
. Civil societys
1-Capacity Building

(2&3)
Training-Personnal/Strenghtening
NGOs! ! !
@ National level

Central & State organizations shall be assisted by

the designated NGOs to Identify & Facilitate
training of grass root workers for the implementation of AMPs.
&
Catalyse & Scale up the PGWM process to facilitate
the field level outreach of ground water development measures.
1-Capacity Building

@ Village Level

@-Guide collective sharing

@-Use of water resource based data storage

&
@-Transmission characteristics of different

aquifer units
 Gram Sabha
1-Capacity Building

the final arbiter in case of

# Disputes
&
#Establishing some basic regulatory norms (under PRI system)

A national level independent agency shall be

entrusted for evaluation of the project
(members of farmers, landless farm workers with appropriate SC,
ST& Womens representatives)
1-Capacity Building

(4)
Para-Hydrogeologists
Each para-hydrogeologist can be a village youth or college
student, with the desire to learn and engage with the village-water
problems.

Estimated about 17000 para-hydrogeologists in villages and

about 3000 para-hydrogeologists in urban areas would be required
in this first phase of aquifer mapping

There are some 640000 villages in India spread across nearly 6000 blocks / taluks. Even if we consider that the
12th Plan targets the 30% of the country mainly overexploited blocks and blocks with major water quality issues in
the country, one may consider about 250000 villages divided across 2000 blocks/taluks spread across 214 odd
districts spreading over 2.5 lakh villages.
Para-
Hydrogeologist
Para-Hydrogeologist / grass root ground water
workers
they are
Suitable
Youths & Women
etc
They will be trained to function as
*Facilitators
*Trainers
&
*Data managers at the village level
Para-Hydrogeologists- Responsible for
1- Collection of primary
Hydrogeological data
2-Periodic monitoring key wells
&
3- Sensitization of the villagers
(on ground water trends, Usage & its
Para-Hydrogeologist

Responsibilities
1.One-time inventory: Creating a one-time well-inventory for the
village including names of owners of the wells, the dimensions of
the structure (well/spring), pump and pumping system, etc.
collected from the well-owner(s) / users of wells/springs, for all
wells in the village.
2.Lithologs of wells / boreholes / tube wells for a sample of about
15-20 wells per village: Observation-based description of rocks and
rock types some ( the basis for which will be a Para-
hydrogeologist training programme see section below on Capacity
Building), with these observations supporting the hydrogeological
mapping exercise undertaken by specialized agencies while
conducting the one-time inventory.
3.Water level and basic in-situ water quality data - for a sample of
about 15-20 wells per village: Temporal data like water-levels /
spring discharge (monthly), in-situ groundwater quality (quarterly),
helping in the collection of water samples for comprehensive testing
(representative samples, twice every year) will form the broad set of
activities for each Para-hydrogeologist for about 500 wells per
 Since the personnel from Hydrogeology and
other disciplines will form the backbone for
preparation of Aquifer Management Plans, the
degree of capacity building of these
personnel shall fructify into the degree of
accuracy of preparation of AMPs.
This training will be specialized and
encompass the latest techniques for aquifer
mapping, including the lessons learnt from
the Pilot Project, APFGMS etc.
 These trainings will have various components
namely
RGI and other central organizations (in house)
Research Institutions and Universities
International experts imparting training in
India (MoUs)
International trainings
 Training to NGOs
The NGOs can be identified using the
vast data-base available with CGWB
and the State GWDs.
The past performance of the NGOs
shall also be an important criterion for
their selection.
Preference shall be given to the local
NGOs.
 As many of these NGOs already have
personnel having some experience in the
field of ground water, RGI shall be made
responsible at Central level for conducting a
two (2) or three (3) weeks training to two
persons from each of the identified NGOs.
The training would include a brief on
hydrological cycle with emphasis on aquifer
mapping and participatory ground water
management.
The PHGs shall be imparted training at
State / Commissionaire level.
The training shall be conducted by
Institutions identified by CGWB and
SGWDs. The faculty will be drawn from
CGWB (including RGI), Academic
institutions and NGOs.
 The training will be for a period of 2 to 3
weeks and shall be on basic hydrogeology,
field data collection, management of
ground water, importance of community
participation etc
The PHGs shall be the field arms for the
NAQUIM.
NATIONAL LEVEL - I TIER
RGNGWTRI

Officers of CGWB, other Central

Govt., State Govt.
Institutes & Organisations
 State Support Centres

State, District officers, GO, VO & Post

Graduate, Science Graduates& related
Engineering stream Students
 District Support Centres

Panchayat Raj Institutions.

NGO,
VO,
Students,
Self Working Groups &
Stakeholders
 Mass Awareness programmes are required
to be organized or out sourced at
village/block levels to aware the people at
grass root level about
the aquifer system and about the co-
operative management of the aquifer in an
equitable manner by community efforts
 material like maps, brochures, pamphlets
can be distributed among the students and
exhibitions of working models & pictures
cam be organised
Awareness through Documentary films on
community based cooperative management
of ground water themes can be created
among the school children and villages.
Mass Awareness Programme

Mass awareness Programme Avinashi, Tiruppur district

Mass awareness Programme Melaneelithanallur , Tirunelveli

 Awareness programmes are
also to be organized separately
for the women, as they are
considered to be the better
manager of resources at house
and village levels
 Awareness among the school children of
rural and urban area can also be created
through organising painting and essay
writing competitions in a sporting way at
school levels. Children are the best medium
to propagate the messages even to their
elders and others also