NGT directs a panel to take groundwater samples, study recharge methodology

The National Green Tribunal has directed a committee to take groundwater samples and study the methodology of recharging it after a plea alleged that rainwater harvesting structures built by the municipal corporations and other civic bodies were contaminating water.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel asked the committee comprising representatives from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) to submit the report within a month.

The nodal agency will be the DPCC for coordination and compliance, the NGT said and directed the petitioner to furnish a complete set of papers to the CPCB, DPCC and the CGWB and file an affidavit of service within a week.

The tribunal was hearing the plea, filed by a city resident Mahesh Chandra Saxena, alleging that groundwater recharge by Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Development Authority, Public Works Department, New Delhi Municipal Council, South Delhi Municipal Corporation through rain water harvesting structures is not scientific and is resulting in pollution of groundwater.

NGT had earlier imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh each on educational institutions in the national capital for failing to install rainwater harvesting systems.

It had directed schools and colleges to approach a committee constituted by it. The committee was to inspect the premises and grant permission to institutions for operating the system.

If it was not possible to install a rainwater harvesting system, the institution should approach the committee, it had said.