- NAQUIM is an initiative of the Ministry of Water Resources, Government of India, for mapping and managing the entire aquifer systems in the country.
- The vision of the National Project on Aquifer Management is to identify and map aquifers at the micro level, to quantify the available groundwater resources, and to propose plans appropriate to the scale of demand and aquifer characteristics, and institutional arrangements for participatory management.
Aquifer
- An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock, rock fractures or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt).
- Groundwater can be extracted using a water well.
- The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology.
- Related terms include aquitard, which is a bed of low permeability along an aquifer, and aquiclude (or aquifuge), which is a solid, impermeable area underlying or overlying an aquifer.
- If the impermeable area overlies the aquifer, pressure could cause it to become a confined aquifer.
- Aquifers occur from near surface to deeper than 30,000 feet.
- Those closer to the surface are not only more likely to be used for water supply and irrigation, but are also more likely to be topped up by the local rainfall.
