High court bans commercial use of groundwater

In a judgment that will have serious impact on commercial activities across the city, the Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the Gurgaon administration to ban the use of groundwater except for domestic purposes.

In a judgment that will have serious impact on commercial activities across the city, the Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the Gurgaon administration to ban the use of groundwater except for domestic purposes.

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The directive, issued in the presence of Gurgaon district magistrate, came on the petitions filed by DLF Qutub Enclave residents’ welfare association (RWA) and a lawyer, Sunil Singh, against illegal and excessive use of groundwater in Gurgaon by developers and others, plummeting the groundwater to dangerous levels.

If the verdict is implemented in its true spirit, not only construction will come to a standstill — as Haryana is in no position to meet the additional water requirement — the developers will also have to look at alternative sources of water, adding to the cost of realty. Industries that uses huge amounts of groundwater every day will also be affected.

After Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) declared Gurgaon a dark zone in 2000, drilling of borewells was banned through a notification.

The CGWA had also said if excessive extraction of groundwater continued, Gurgaon will be without groundwater by 2017.

In 2008, however, the CGWA allowed conditional drilling of borewells. “The court has taken serious view of the fact that the CGWA guidelines related to groundwater extraction were being violated at high level in Gurgaon,” said Nivedita Sharma, counsel for the RWA.

“I have asked my officials to form teams and start raiding these premises (construction sites, industrial units, commercial complexes) to check groundwater extraction,” said the district magistrate.