As per the Ground water resource assessment carried out by the Central Ground water Board in 2024, the groundwater resources of the Ladakh(UT) have been assessed on block level in 2 districts.
The topography of the region is extremely rugged, mountainous, and highly inaccessible. Leh plain is underlain by morainic deposits consisting of boulders, cobbles, pebbles embedded in an arenaceous matrix and the lake deposits comprising predominantly of clays, sandy-Clays and silt. The sediments are overlain by varved clays and silts of lacustrine origin again succeeded by morainic boulders and cobbles in disintegrated loose sandy matrix and alluvial deposits. Groundwater in the valleys occurs in porous formations. This includes moraines and fluvio-glacial deposits of Ladakh. Kargil District comprises of the Suru, Zanskar, DrassShamkerChikar, Waknaand Laws valley’s. Groundwater occurs mainly in the porous formations of morainic deposits consisting of Talus and Scree formations.
The total recharge of ground water involves several components like rainfall/ snowfall being the major one. The other components are seepage from canal, kuhls and return flow from surface water and ground water irrigation. The UT has a total of 963 Sq. km recharge worthy area. The average area reported for the Assessment Unit is 53.50 Sq. km.
As per the report Total Annual Ground Water Recharge of the UT has been estimated as 0.07 bcm (Billion Cubic Meters) and Annual Extractable Ground Water Resources is 0.06 bcm. The Total Current Annual Ground Water Extraction is 0.02 bcm. The Stage of Ground Water extraction in Ladakh is 30.93 %. Out of the total 18 Assessment Units, 1 AUs (5.56%) of Leh are categorized as ‘Semi Critical’ and remaining 17 AUs (94.44%) are categorized as ‘Safe’. The number of semi-critical assessment units has reduced from six to one since 2023. There has also been a reduction in the stage of the percentage of ground water extraction in Ladakh from 37.05% in 2023 to 30.93% at present.