GMDA tells departments to draw up plan to curb groundwater use

The Punjab and Haryana high court has recorded that groundwater levels in parts of Gurugram have fallen to nearly 40 metres below ground level. According to submissions placed before it, the district extracts groundwater at around 212.8% of its annually extractable resource.

With Gurugram extracting more than twice its annually available groundwater resource, the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) on Monday directed civic and district agencies to prepare plans to reduce groundwater use and increase dependence on canal water.

The district administration was also asked to identify unauthorised borewells and take action against them. (HT)

The directions were issued at a meeting chaired by GMDA chief executive officer PC Meena, which was convened following an October 1 order of the Punjab and Haryana high court over the city’s rapidly depleting groundwater reserves.

The court has recorded that groundwater levels in parts of Gurugram have fallen to nearly 40 metres below ground level. According to submissions placed before it, the district extracts groundwater at around 212.8% of its annually extractable resource.

Meena directed departments to submit their action plans by October 6 on reducing groundwater extraction and improving recharge. The district administration was also asked to identify unauthorised borewells and take action against them.

The high court has asked GMDA to examine whether groundwater extraction can be stopped in areas already receiving piped water from the authority and submit a report on the outcome of Monday’s meeting by October 8.

Meena also called for greater use of tertiary-treated wastewater instead of fresh groundwater. GMDA currently supplies around 10 MLD of treated wastewater to the textile industry, and officials said other industrial units would be encouraged to use it.

The Haryana State Pollution Control Board was asked to monitor sewage treatment plants in group housing societies, while separate electricity connections for STPs and enforcement of the zero-discharge policy were also discussed.

GMDA is meanwhile examining underground rainwater storage beneath parks, including a proposed facility below the football ground at Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Sector 38.

Five scientific rainwater-harvesting structures are also being developed with IIT Delhi. Those in sectors 31 and 39 and at AIT Park in Sector 55 have been completed, while work at Rezangla Chowk is under way.

According to the Haryana Water Resources Authority, rejuvenation of 142 ponds has been planned across the district, of which 68 have been completed and work on 74 is under way.