Groundwater exploitation in India has increased rapidly over the last 50 years as reflected by the growth of the number of groundwater abstraction structures (from 3.9 million in 1951 to 18.5 million in 1990) and shallow tube wells (from 3000 in 1951 to 8.5 million in 1990) (Muralidharan, 1998; Singh & Singh, 2002).Today groundwater is the source for more than 85 % of India’s rural domestic water requirements, 50 % of urban water and more than 50 % of irrigation demand. The increase in demand in the last 50 years has led to declining water tables in many parts of the country. For example, 15% of the assessment units (Blocks/Mandals/Talukas) have groundwater extraction in excess of the net annual recharge (Central Ground Water Board, 2007). According to Rodell et al. (2009), the extent of groundwater depletion between 2002 and 2008 was 109 km3, which is about half the capacity of India’s total surface-water reservoirs.

In the course of identifying areas of relevance for further research and development the members of the European Water Supply and Sanitation Technology (WssTP) identified Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) as an important cross-cutting topic and area relevant for further research. For this reason a Task Force on MAR was initiated with 36 representatives from European research institutes and industry partners with participation of international experts. These task force members developed the basis for a report documenting the state of the art and research needs in the field of MAR that has now been published by the WssTP.