Maharashtra Government has initiated the process of setting up State Water Informatics Centre (SWIC) on the lines of National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC). As the first step towards setting up SWIC, the Water Resources Department (WRD) has issued an order in this regard. As per the order, WRD will be the nodal department for establishment of SWIC in Maharashtra, and the Chief Engineer (Hydrology and Dam Safety), Nashik will be the Nodal Agency. Water Supply and Sanitation Department, and Soil and Water Conservation Department, will be the supporting departments. All the other line departments and organisations shall collaborate with the SWIC.

The nodal department shall take the lead in setting up SWIC, and shall be responsible for obtaining all necessary approvals for setting of SWIC particularly with regard to its mandate, rules and responsibilities, organisational set up, location, head of organisation, reporting relationship with the lead department and budget provision and sign Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with NWIC. The State Water Informatics Centre is expected to act as a dedicated organisation for co-ordination, collection, and dissemination of water resources data of Maharashtra with support and guidance from NWIC. Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation had directed vide their letters dated May 12, 2021 and January 24, 2022 to set up SWIC. Though no further details are available regarding SWIC at present, the WRD is expected to come up with a structure and operational mandates at the earliest.

As far as NWIC is concerned, Government of India had set it up on March 28, 2018 to act as a central repository of updated water data and allied themes. It was establised for ‘timely and reliable’ water resources data acquisition, storage, collation and management, and to provide tools for informed decision-making for management of water resources of the country. Its objective is also to share hydro-meteorological data amongst Central and State Government organisations and other stakeholders of water and general public. Also, it provides tools to create value-added maps by way of multi-layer stacking of GIS database so as to provide an integrated view of the water resources scenarios, and collaborate with National/International research institutes.