Every drop counts

New groundwater-extraction guidelines are inadequate

The new water-extraction guidelines, notified by the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) to take effect from June 1, are unlikely to help check wasteful and injudicious use of rapidly vanishing groundwater because of several loopholes. For one, they do not make any effort to ensure efficient and need-based utilisation of water for irrigation, which corners nearly 90 per cent of the extracted groundwater. The domestic sector, which accounts for another 5 per cent of it, has also been exempted from any restrictions. That leaves only 5 per cent groundwater that is accessed by the industrial sector to be regulated for careful use. Even in this case, some of the well-advised norms that are already in place have been relaxed for no good reason. Many commercial ventures, including beverages and drinking water bottlers, do not only consume water in bulk but also waste it in substantial measure. The power of issuing no objection certificates for many kinds of industrial units has now been vested with district magistrates instead of the CGWA. Given the lack of wider perspective on the status of this dynamic natural resource, the civic authorities can be expected to be quite lenient in letting the commercial ventures tap it unchecked.
 

The existing provision for mandatory recharging of groundwater by bulk consumers has also been diluted. They are now bound only to undertake rooftop water harvesting and not large-scale field projects for rainwater harvesting. Though the new guidelines propose water conservation fees on groundwater use to generate resources for the state governments’ water harvesting schemes, there is no guarantee that these funds will actually be used for this purpose. No doubt, the water charges have rightly been linked with the category of aquifer, type of industry and the quantum of water extraction but, in the absence of any cap on water withdrawals, this step will not suffice to discourage its wasteful use by cash-rich consumers. Moreover, the new rules have, for inexplicable reasons, virtually done away with the obligation to reuse the extracted water. Any laxity on this count is uncalled for considering the rampant overexploitation of this resource, causing a sharp dip in water table in many areas. 

India is already the world’s largest user of groundwater, tapping annually about 253 billion cubic metres (BCM) of water. This is equivalent to 25 per cent of the global yearly withdrawals. As many as 1,034 of India’s total 6,584 groundwater blocks have already been categorised as “over-exploited”. Among the rest, 253 blocks are in “critical” and 681 in “semi-critical” categories. Some 96 others hold only saline water which, in any case, is not of much use. Water tapping in these areas needs to be kept below the level of annual recharge through natural or artificial means. With such disquieting state of the country’s groundwater resources, exceptional care is needed not only to thwart its indiscriminate use but also to incentivise its replenishment with rainwater. Otherwise, large parts of the country would soon face severe shortage of water even for domestic and drinking purposes.