You will soon be able to measure and capture the water level in your area with the click of the mouse or keypad of your mobile.  Union Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Giriraj Singh will on Tuesday launch the “JALDOOT App” that will be used across the country to capture the water level of selected wells in a village.

The App is being launched in view of declining levels of the groundwater, as also utilization of surface water sources, resulting in significant depletion of water levels causing distress to the community, including farmers. “Therefore measurement and observation of the levels of water tables across the country has become necessary. “The Jaldoot app will enable Gram Rojgar Sahayak (GRS) to measure the water level of selected wells twice a year (pre-monsoon and post-monsoon).

In every village, an adequate number of measurement locations (2-3) shall need to be selected. These will be representative of the ground water level in that village,” said an official from the Ministry.

The app will facilitate panchayats with robust data, which can be further used for better planning of works. The ground water data could be utilised as part of the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) and Mahatma Gandhi NREGA planning exercises. Further, the data can also be used for different kinds of research and other purposes.

The official pointed out that in the last few years, various steps have been taken for improvement of water management both in the rural and urban areas, through watershed development, afforestation, water body development and renovation, rainwater harvesting and so on.

According to the Central Ground water Board (CGWB), with 230 billion metre cubes of groundwater drawn out each year for irrigating agriculture lands in India, many parts of country are experiencing rapid depletion of groundwater.

The total estimated groundwater depletion in India is in the range of 122–199 billion metre cubes.

According to the officials, 89% of ground water extracted is used in the irrigation sector, making it the highest category user in the country. “This is followed by ground water for domestic use which is 9% of the extracted groundwater.

 Industrial use of ground water is 2%. 50% of urban water requirements and 85% of rural domestic water requirements are also fulfilled by ground water,” said the officials.