State govt sets up group to work on groundwater conservation

LUCKNOW: The state government has set up a working group to draw up a conservation strategy for groundwater resources in UP.

Groundwater level has dipped alarmingly in the state. While a legislation, UP Groundwater Conservation, Protection and Development (Management, Control and Regulation) Bill, 2010, is pending for years, the government has constituted a working group under the state planning commission to give a report on the status of groundwater and recommend ways to conserve the resource.

Need-based water supply, conjunctive use of surface and groundwater and rostering to check irregular extraction of groundwater resources might be recommended to check exploitation of groundwater in the state, said sources in the groundwater department.

“We will hand over the report to the chief minister. There have been a few meetings but we need to meet more,” said the deputy chairman of the state planning commission, NC Bajpai.

The water table in UP has been exploited severely for construction of high rises and apartments. The worst affected are western UP districts. The latest assessment shows eight development blocks each in Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur on the verge of going dry and parched. Baghpat, Meerut, Moradabad, Agra, and Badaun are equally stressed areas.

Gautam Budh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad, Rae Bareli, Jaunpur, Varanasi and Fatehpur have seen their water table go down alarmingly by 0.4 metre to 1 metre every year.

Sources said that regulation of groundwater-use in UP is by way of government schemes and not by way of Act. In 108 over-exploited development blocks in 34 districts, the government has stopped schemes like free boring, deep bore wells and private tube wells.

“In development blocks where groundwater level has reached a critical state, drawl of water under government schemes has been stopped but there is no strict mechanism to rein in defaulters,” a source said.

Director of UP groundwater department PR Chaurasia said, “It has been laid down in the by-laws that NOC for groundwater use should be sought for construction of buildings. Development authorities ensure that it is followed.” Sources, however, deny the mechanism is strictly followed.

What has further stressed groundwater resources in the state is its dependence for irrigation and drinking water. In at least 630 urban bodies, drinking water requirement is met through groundwater resources.

Of the 820 development blocks SURVEYED FOR groundwater resources, most over-exploited blocks lie in western UP. Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur top the chart. Badaun has seven over-exploited blocks, Agra has six, Moradabad, Baghpat and Ferozabad have five each.

Meanwhile, Fatehpur has four critical blocks, Jaunpur has three and Varanasi two. Sultanpur has 10 blocks that are semi-critical, Rae Bareli has seven, Allahabad, Fatehpur and Jaunpur have six and Varanasi has five.

The government has laid down that affected districts should have in place a recharge activity core team to study hydrology, state of drainage system, annual availability of rain water, availability of run-off and trend of rainfall in the critical blocks of districts under their jurisdiction.