Parched Haryana looks for fossil water reservoirs

Vishal Joshi

Tribune News Service

Kurukshetra, May 5

Taking a cue from Libya’s The Great Man-Made River (GMR) project, the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) may soon start exploring fossil water reservoirs in Haryana.

According to ‘Project Saraswati’, the public sector undertaking will drill six 1-km borewells for freshwater in the state, which is facing underground water table depletion.

While ONGC officials remained unavailable for comments, Prashant Bhardwaj, vice-chairperson of the Haryana Saraswati Heritage Development Board (HSHDB), said Adi Badri and Kapal Mochan in Yamunanagar district would be among the exploration sites.

He said water extracted from the subsoil would not be used to feed the proposed Saraswati river revival project.

Under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) project, the ONGC had first proposed drilling in 2005.

It had successfully located freshwater near the Indo-Pak border in Jaisalmer in 2006. But the project did not proceed.

MR Rao, former group general manager, knowledge management, ONGC, told The Tribune over the phone from Hyderabad that Project Saraswati was based purely on the scientific findings.

“During oil exploration in 1950’s, Libyan experts discovered aquifers in the desert region at a depth ranging between 800-2,500 m. The GMR, a network of underground pipelines was bringing high-quality freshwater from ancient underground aquifers in the Sahara for domestic use, agriculture and industry,” he said.

Then Subir Raha, ONGC chairman, planned similar explorations in public interest.

“Intensive groundwork moved us to Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat with firm indications of underground water reservoirs, which could be part of a river that stopped flowing on the surface for various reasons,” said Rao.

Remote sensing images showed a paleochannel was also present in India’s adjoining region in Pakistan.

Rao said at Jumman Samoo village of Pakistan, a 12-inch bore was drilled 1,200 feet and they encountered a deep layer of aquifers.

It reaffirms scope of similar water treasures along the indentified course of erstwhile Saraswati in India.

“After drilling at the depth of 554 m near Jaisalmer in Rajasthan in 2006, water was found in abundance. It was coming at the rate of 76,000 litres/hour. Though the water was saline, its quality was much better than that found in the Thar,” said Rao, a geophysicist, who had led work exploration in Jaisalmer.

He said fossil waters would help Haryana fight water scarcity for irrigation, drinking and industrial purposes.