The Union Minister for Water Resources, Mr. Pawan Kumar Bansal, has emphasized that the rain water harvesting and artificial recharge measures need to be adopted as a National Mission involving people from all walks of life. Chairing the 4th Meeting of Advisory Council on Artificial Recharge to Groundwater in New Delhi today, Mr. Bansal said the indiscriminate use of ground water resulted in drying up of existing wells, sea water ingress in coastal aquifers and deterioration in ground water quality. He called for creating awareness on this issue among beneficiaries including women, children, farmers and industry for increasing water use efficiency and implementing artificial recharge measures. The Minister said that there are some areas where practices adopted on artificial recharge and water use efficiency by the farmers in coordination with NGOs have reversed the trend of depletion of ground water levels.