New tubewells can plunder water

Times Of India, New Delhi, September 07, 2008.
In a move fraught with serious repercussions for the already critical round water levels in the south and southwest districts in Delhi, Faridabad and Gurgaon, the Central Ground Water Authority has decided to permit boring of new tubewells for domestic purposes in these regions on the condition that the area deputy commissioner be intimation 10 days before work is to start.
The notification that is being criticized for various loop holes, doesnt specify a cap on number of borings, opening up the areas to massive exploitation of groundwater. The CGWA, however, says its move will bring ''transparency''.
'' We were concerned over the rampant corruption in the notified zones and since boring was taking place in any case, we wanted to ensure that the area DC would at least have details on the extraction taking place. We only wanted to make the system transparent, " said an official.
Residents of the areas claim that about 200 borewells have already been dug since the notie was issued. The main point of the notice that those ''intending to construct new tubewell will intimate the authorised officer/advisory committee 10 days in advance''.
"Since the notice only talks of intimation, people did not permission was required and went ahead with work, " said Jyoti Sharma, president of Forum for Organised Resource, Conversation and Enchancement (FORCE).
On the new notification that permits boring of new tubewells for domestic purposes in south and southwest districts, she said "The soth DC's office made a proforma asking for details on water availability, presence of other borewells, number of residents etc and issued to those who had applied for digging. This has been interpreted by people as no permission is required.''
The DC's office confirmed that no official permissions had been issued and sources said that the DC had sent a letter to CGWA , asking for clarifications on the numerous ambiguities in the notice. In fact, a CGWA official also said that the notice had not been framed correctly and would lead to a lot of problems. "The guidelines have been framed in such a way that that they leave scope for a lot of misinterpretation. Secondly, CGWA passed on its responsibility of authorizing boring to the DC's without any formal change in rules," said an official on condition of anonymity.
Ironically,when the CGWA wanted to notify five more zones in the city last year where grounwater levels had fallen alarmingly , the DCs of those ones zones had objected , saying that notification only led to corruption and that CGWA had to come out with a concrete plan to preserve groundwater resources. " The situation in south and southwest districts has only deterioration since they were notified. What guarantee do we have that the situation wont repeat itself in these areas too," said a govt official. The notification of these zones is still pending.
Residents of Vasant Vihar approached the LG over the issue on Thursday. Ranjan Mukherjee, officer on special duty for the LG, told Times City that he would be writing to CGWA on Friday and ask for the reasoning behind such a move. "We know that the areas are critical in terms of groundwater and would like an explanation from CGWA on why such a notice was issued. Until we get a reply, we cannot take any teps," he said. While he CGWA officail who had signed the notification refused to comment, the member secretary could not be contacted.