Legislation on ground water use soon

In line with the initiatives taken by some other state governments, the Orissa government is mulling to bring in a separate legislation governing the control, utilisation and management of ground water in the state.

This is under the consideration of the state government and a decision is likely to be taken soon, according to the state industry minister, Raghunath Mohanty.

Admitting the fall in the ground water level in Sundergarh district due to the deep bore wells dug by the sponge iron plants, the minister said, the depletion is within the limit.

Based on the data collected by the directorate of ground water of the Orissa government for last five years, the minister said, there is fall in the ground water level in some areas.

He said, only 15.37 percent of the available ground water in Sundergarh district was exploited for all purposes. This included 11 percent for agriculture, 4 percent for domestic purposes and 0.5 percent for industrial purposes. It may be noted Sundergah has one of the highest concentration of sponge iron plants with 62 sponge plants located in the district. Mohanty said, the Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) has asked all the sponge iron plants in the district to undertake rain water harvesting as per the provisions of the Environment Protection Act, 1986 and direction of Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA). These units have been asked to obtain no objection certificates (NoC) from CGWA for use of ground water.

Action has been taken against industries using the ground water without the required permission. First Information Report (FIR) was lodged against 10 sponge iron plants drawing ground water un-authorisedly. They include Kaushal Ferro Metal (Podbahal), Vasundhara Metallik (Podajalanga), Sainath Ispat (Kirei), Swastik Ispat (Naikenbahal), Deo Ispat Alloys ( Bhawanipur), Seeta Sponge Iron (Kalunga), Kalinga Sponge Iron (Kalunga), Shiv Metalliks (Bonai), Reliable Sponge (Bonai) and Vishal Metallik Industries (Bonai).

To measure the ground water level, Mohanty said, 1035 monitoring wells have been set up in various geological areas in the state.

Though the directorate of ground water measures the level four times a year, the government is considering a proposal to carry out a special survey and investigation of ground water in emerging industrial areas, he informed.