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As the summer season begins in the Indian subcontinent, Delhi’s groundwater crisis has become severe.
Groundwater levels have been dropping for years but providing safe and adequate drinking water for the over 15 million people residing in Delhi is now a big challenge for government agencies.
And it is clear that India’s capital is sitting on a time bomb.
This came as a reaction to a report submitted to the court by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), which revealed a critical drop in water tables across Delhi.
Groundwater levels have been falling for a long time now but the increasing drop in groundwater reserves is alarming.
The report revealed that groundwater level is declining by 0.5 to 2 metres annually in most parts of Delhi. The report further said that in almost all of Delhi, barring a few west and central areas, the situation was “critical” or “semi-critical”.
This means even the water-rich areas along the floodplains of the river Yamuna – the lifeline of Delhi – are facing over exploitation of groundwater.
According to the report, in 2000 the water table in 27 percent of Delhi (around 1,500 square kilometres) was at a depth of 0-5 metres but in the last 17 years, that area has reduced to just 11 percent. The rest of the city now has to dig deeper to find water.
At the same time, in 15 percent of Delhi, groundwater is found at a depth of 40-80 metres. The report drew extensively from an earlier 2013 study instead of fresh analysis by CGWB.
According to official figures, Delhi has a water requirement of 1,100 million litres on a daily basis out of which the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the city’s agency responsible for providing water to its citizens, is able to fulfil the requirement of up to 900 million litres of water daily. The gap of 200 million litres is met by groundwater reserves.
According to the CWGB, Delhi’s groundwater is the most exploited in the country after the states of Punjab and Rajasthan.
Groundwater in about 56 percent of the assessment units in Delhi was found to be over-exploited.
Added to this, the pressures of bad water quality often leads to shutting down of treatment plants, wetlands that are crucial to recharge groundwater are shrinking, and increasing construction, commercial interests and domestic demands are leading to mushrooming of illegal borewells as people compete with one another to extract the last drop.
Following this, the water governing body has sealed over 730 illegal borewells while it admitted that 5,000 illegal pumps continue to run.
The green court also asked the DJB to prepare a comprehensive plan to recharge groundwater.
While rainwater harvesting is often cited as a solution, Mohaniya said that other ways of recharging groundwater would be explored in the comprehensive plan.
Mohaniya also said that the DJB is considering giving a waiver of 50 percent on sewer charges as an incentive to install waste water treatment plants.
However, water activists say that Delhi has enough water and it is the sheer mismanagement of the resource that has brought on this critical condition.
Talking about illegal borewells, Misra added, “Just sealing 700 borewells is not enough as earlier studies have shown that there are lakhs of illegal borewells that are drawing out water. And not just that, in critical areas like South Delhi you see flourishing farmhouses. Where is that water coming from? People are illegally extracting water for horticulture purpose as they rent farms out for weddings and parties. Who is going to account for that? Eastern parts of Delhi don’t get piped water simply because people themselves have not taken water connections as they meet their requirements from groundwater.”
Without that knowledge, it is hard to see how such schemes would work, or – in fact – how any scheme at all would lead to success.
(The story was originally published on Third Pole Net and has been republished with permission.)
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