Madhya Pradesh has secured the top position among states in the Union government’s Ministry of Jal Shakti’s Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari Abhiyan. The programme has been running since September 6, 2024. According to the rankings released on April 22, the state has completed around 658,792 water conservation structures, placing it first in the country. Chhattisgarh follows with 604,194 completed works.
Within the state, two districts have drawn particular attention. Dindori, a tribal district in eastern Madhya Pradesh, ranks first among all districts in the country. It has completed 167,987 works out of a total of 173,424. Khandwa, officially known as East Nimar and located in the Nimar region, ranks second nationally. It has completed 84,888 works out of a total of 94,154.
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav wrote on social media that the state had completed 564,119 works, while Dindori had completed 147,217 and Khandwa 87,740 works. These figures differ from those on the dashboard, possibly because they were recorded at different points in time. Such variations are common in live dashboards as data continues to be updated.
In Madhya Pradesh, the campaign is being run under the name “Jal Ganga Samvardhan Abhiyan”. It was launched on March 19 and will continue until June 30, 2026. The campaign includes farm ponds, recharge pits, Amrit Sarovars, borewell recharge systems, recharge shafts, and rooftop rainwater harvesting systems. Old water sources are also being repaired.
The National Picture
Dashboard data presents a broader picture. Madhya Pradesh ranks first with 760,646 total works — completed and ongoing. Chhattisgarh is second with 676,918 works, while Andhra Pradesh ranks third with 552,598. Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Odisha, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu are also among the top ten states.
At the municipal corporation level, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation ranks first, with 13,956 completed works out of 14,009. Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation ranks second with 12,893 completed works and some still ongoing. Indore Municipal Corporation, the only municipal corporation from Madhya Pradesh in the top ten, ranks third. It has completed 10,004 works, with no ongoing works shown on the dashboard.
Dindori at the Top Nationwide
Dindori’s position at the top is significant for a particular reason. The district has a predominantly tribal population and is among the economically weaker regions of the state. Most people here live in rural areas and depend on rain-fed agriculture. Unlike major urban centres, the district lacks large administrative and economic advantages, making the scale of work reported here noteworthy.
Avi Prasad, commissioner overseeing the campaign in the state, has said that the Union government monitors the programme through a live dashboard. According to data available until April 22, Dindori had created more than 123,000 structures, while the chief minister’s later post showed an even higher figure. The number is significantly higher than the district ranked second. East Nimar’s 84,888 works are nearly equal to the 84,346 works reported from Baloda Bazar in Chhattisgarh, which ranks third.
The Problem With the Numbers
In this campaign, “completed work” is the primary metric. It is a broad category that includes different types of structures. A rooftop rainwater harvesting system in a single house and a large farm pond or Amrit Sarovar are counted equally. This is not unique to this scheme. Most large government programmes use similar methods because they are easier to count and report.
But these figures do not indicate how much water has actually been stored, how much groundwater levels have improved, or how durable these structures will be over time. Even if a recharge pit deteriorates quickly, fills with silt, or a rooftop harvesting tank stops functioning properly, it is still counted as a completed work. The data released so far does not provide information on these aspects.
The concern is important because India has seen several such programmes in the past where construction figures appeared impressive, but long-term monitoring remained limited. Earlier phases of the Jal Shakti Abhiyan, including the “Catch the Rain” campaign, also recorded large numbers of works. Subsequent studies found that the impact on groundwater levels was uneven across regions.
When rankings are based on the number of works completed, states and districts tend to focus on increasing those counts. Smaller and simpler works can be completed more quickly, causing numbers to rise rapidly. A district that undertakes fewer but larger and more impactful structures may appear lower in rankings.
The available data does not clearly explain what kinds of works make up Dindori’s 167,000-plus structures. The campaign relies on figures uploaded at district and block levels, which are then reflected on the central dashboard. There is no mention of any independent verification process.
The Larger Picture
This does not necessarily mean the effort itself is flawed. Madhya Pradesh faces serious water stress, and groundwater levels continue to decline in several districts. In such a situation, involving people in water conservation efforts is important.
The campaign’s stated objective is to promote water conservation through public participation. But it remains unclear how much of this participation is genuinely community-driven and how much is shaped by the pressure to meet targets.
Madhya Pradesh being ranked first is a documented fact. Dindori being at the top is also part of the official record. But what these numbers truly mean is still unanswered. That clarity may emerge only later, through rainfall data, groundwater surveys, and independent studies.
For now, the numbers remain just numbers.