Rapid fall in water table makes residents worried

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 27

The rapid fall in the water table has been causing frequent glitches in the supply of water from tube wells in the walled city.

Surinder Singh Nagpal, a city resident, said, “We have to call the Municipal Corporation (MC) office frequently over water shortage. Most of the time, it has been found out that the pump ran dry as the water level goes down.”

Prof Mohan Singh (retd), a local resident, said, “Groundwater is receding at a rate of 50 cm every year in the city. Water is commonly found at the depth of 180 feet or more. The excessive use of groundwater is mainly responsible for the constant drop in the water table.”

Rising population has also contributed to the scarcity of potable water, he added. Consequently, majority of the tube wells have gone dry and hand pumps have became defunct but people are still wasting water lavishly, he remarked. Builders are openly using groundwater in construction activities. Such things result in a rapid decline in the water table. With scarcity of space, the MC has no option but to install tube wells on narrow roads.

Shivinder Mehra, another resident, said, there are many dilapidated houses lying unoccupied in the city, which could be used by the MC for installing tube wells. As installing them in the middle of road is not sustainable in the long run, he said.

Inderbir Singh Bolaria, MLA, Amritsar (South), said, a large part of his constituency falls in the walled city where supplying potable water has become an uphill task.

“There is a dearth of open space to install tube wells. In case, they get space, its life span is short as the water table goes down rapidly.” He suggested constructing an artificial lake on around 200 acres of the area and then draining out the waste water from the walled city into it. The same water after purifying could be re-supplied to houses, he added.