Karnal faces water shortage of 1,205 MCM annually

Parveen Arora

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Karnal, December 9

Indiscriminate withdrawal of groundwater leads to a significant alteration in water availability for different water-consuming sectors such as agriculture, industrial and domestic.

Plan to reduce dependency on groundwater

I have reviewed the status of the availability and demand. I have asked the authorities to chalk out a plan to reduce the dependency on groundwater. People should stop wasting water. Anish Yadav, Deputy commissioner

On an average, the district has recorded an alarming downfall of the water table by 12.86 m between 2000 and 2021. The water table of the district was at 8.57 m in 2000 and reached 21.43 m in 2021.

As per data of the Irrigation Department, there is an annual requirement of 2,205 million cubic metre (MCM) of water in the district, while the availability from all resources like canals, groundwater, rainfall, ponds and others is only 1,000 MCM, so the district is facing an annual deficit of 1,205 MCM.

From the annual water demand, 86 per cent is required only for the agriculture sector, while the remaining sectors such as domestic, livestock, poultry, industrial, fisheries, forestry, establishments and others have a requirement of 14 per cent.

Assandh block is facing an annual shortage of 191.95 MCM, Gharaunda 173.47 MCM, Indri 79.81 MCM, Karnal block 167.34 MCM, Kunjpura block 154 MCM, Munak block 127.6 MCM, Nilokheri block 161.39 MCM, and Nissing block 150.29 MCM, said Navtej Singh, XEN, Irrigation Department. “The non-availability of canal water across the district, over-dependency on groundwater, cultivation of water guzzler paddy crop in Kharif season and wastage of water are major challenges ,” said Sanjay Rahar, Superintending Engineer, Irrigation Department.