MoHUA reviews AMRUT 2.0 Shallow Aquifer Management under 'Catch the Rain' campaign; calls for greater community participation
MoHUA review on AMRUT 2.0 Shallow Aquifer Management (SAM) under the ‘Catch the Rain’ campaign
- MoHUA supports scientific groundwater recharge interventions through city-level planning and execution in participating Urban Local Bodies (ULBs).
- MoHUA conducted a national interaction covering 75 SAM cities on 20 July 2026 to review outcomes, key learnings, and progress.
- MoHUA describes SAM 1.0 as a pilot implemented in ten AMRUT cities between 2022 and 2024 and used for learning prior to AMRUT 2.0 expansion.
What happened
MoHUA Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs chaired a review meeting on AMRUT 2.0 Shallow Aquifer Management (SAM) implementation under the ‘Catch the Rain’ campaign. The meeting included AMRUT Mission officials and representatives of the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) and focused on programme progress, lessons from SAM 1.0, and directions for scaling, monitoring, and monsoon-season execution.
Background and earlier position
A governance-and-environment framing can treat SAM as a case where scientific recharge planning must be paired with local stewardship to sustain outcomes. UPSC can ask how community participation supports maintenance and compliance, while monitoring and documentation support replication across cities.
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