Water extraction by builders: NGT appoints local commissioners

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) today rapped the Noida and Greater Noida authorities for their failure to restrain builders from "extracting" ground water and appointed local commissioners to inspect construction sites there.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar passed the order after perusing the Central Ground Water Authority's (CGWA) affidavit which had said that groundwater level in Noida is under "stress".
"We appoint local commissioners to visit any building site of Noida and Greater Noida to find out if underground water is being extracted," the bench said.
The local commissioners have been assigned the task of conducting inspections without giving prior information and to find out the name of the owner of the building, person in- charge.

Advocate Rahul Chowdhary told PTI that the authorities claim that they supply water from sewage treatment plants (STP) to all the builders for construction purposes while the developers say that most of STPs are non-functional in Noida and Greater Noida, hence they are compelled to extract groundwater.
"Ground water in Noida area is under more stress than Greater Noida which is currently under developmental stage industrially. Although ground water condition in Greater Noida is generally better than Noida at present, the situation may not sustain when after completion of industrial development in the region," it said.

"It should become mandatory that one family purchases only one house for residential purpose and not merely for investment point of view. This measure will discourage indiscriminate concretisation of the area and will increase groundwater recharge at the same time," CGWA had said in its affidavit.

The tribunal was hearing the plea of Noida resident Vikrant Kumar Tongad who alleged that real estate developers were withdrawing ground water in violation of its orders.
On January 11, 2013, the bench had restrained all builders in Noida and Greater Noida from "extracting" ground water for construction or any other purpose.