The Standing Committee on Water Resources has tabled its report in Parliament recently.
Nearly 40% of the allocated funds remained unspent and highlighted delays in fund disbursal and project execution.
The total budget for the department has been raised to ₹25,276.83 crore for 2025-26, an 18.54% increase from the Rs 21,323.10 crore allocated in the previous year.
The allocation for groundwater management and regulation has increased by 56.61% to ₹509 crore in 2025-26.
The River Basin Management programme has also received a 56.98% increase, with ₹243 crore allocated for 2025-26.
But the National Hydrology Project (NHP) saw a 98% reduction, from ₹661.20 crore in 2024-25 to ₹13 crore in 2025-26.
The Catch the Rain campaign has made progress, no direct financial support has been provided to states for rainwater harvesting.