Central Water Commission (CWC) is a technical organization of India in the field of water resources. It is presently functioning as an attached office of the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India. The commission is entrusted with the general responsibilities of initiating, coordinating and furthering in consultation of the State Governments concerned, schemes for control, conservation and utilization of water resources throughout the country, for purpose of flood control, irrigation, navigation, drinking water supply and hydro power development. It also undertakes the investigations, construction and execution of any such schemes as required.

CWC is headed by a chairman, with the status of Ex-Officio Secretary to the Government of India. The work of the commission is divided among three wings namely, Designs and Research (D&R) Wing, River Management (RM) Wing and Water Planning and Projects (WP&P) Wing. Each wing is placed under the charge of a full-time Member with the status of Ex-Officio Additional Secretary to the Government of India and comprising a number of organizations responsible for the disposal of tasks and duties falling within their assigned scope of functions.

Central Water Commission (CWC) came into existence as “Central Waterways, Irrigation and Navigation Commission” (CWINC) in 1945 which was established on the advice of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Member (Labour) in the then Viceroy's Executive Council. The final proposal for establishment of CWINC was prepared by the then Department of Labour with the help of Dr. A.N. Khosla, Consulting Engineer to the Govt. of India for Waterways, Irrigation and Navigation. Dr. A.N. Khosla was subsequently appointed as founder Chairman of the CWINC. Thereafter, Govt. of India vide Ministry of Natural Resources and Scientific Research Resolution dated 21.04.1951 decided on grounds of economy and efficiency, to amalgamate the CWINC and Central Electricity Commission into Central Water and Power Commission (CW&PC). With the creation of the Ministry of Irrigation and Power in 1952, CW&PC became its attached office.

Following the bifurcation of the Ministry of Irrigation and Power in the year 1974 into Department of Power under the Ministry of Energy and Department of Irrigation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, the CW&PC was also bifurcated and its water wing became the Central Water Commission (CWC) and its power wing became the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). Central Water Commission is presently functioning as an attached office of the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India.

Following are the functional domains of CWC:

In order to achieve better management in the Water Resources Sector and to have better coordination with State Government departments, CWC has established 14 regional organisations, each headed by a Chief Engineer. The organisations with their location are as follows:

Central Water Engineering Service (CWES) Group ‘A’ Service was formally constituted in the year 1965, though the cadre had been building since April, 1945 when Central Waterways, Irrigation and Navigation Commission (CWINC) was constituted. CWES is the only organized Group ‘A’ Service at central government dealing with water sector. CWES was mainly constituted with the objective of efficiently manning the various formations of the Government of India (GOI) dealing with water resources development.

CWES officers, belonging to Civil Engineering or Mechanical Engineering streams, are either directly recruited for the Group-A posts by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on the basis of Engineering Services Examination (ESE) or by way of promotion of Group-B officers in the feeder grade.