World Water Day today: Over 1 cr litre of groundwater being recharged

Jalandhar falls in the 'dark zone' as per the records of the the Central Groundwater Board of India with millions of litres of water being taken out of its groundwater reserves on a daily basis. The ground water table in Jalandhar is at 100 feet and is going down by 1m every year, as per experts.

There is need to recharge the underground aquifers for which officials from the Soil and Water Conservation Department have been encouraging the authorities of all government buildings to come up with proposals to set up rainwater harvesting systems. In the past four-five years, nearly 32 government buildings, largely schools, have set up groundwater recharging systems at Rs 1.07 crore.

The installation of rainwater harvesting system has brought a double advantage to the staff and occupants of these buildings. Not only are they helping in replenishing the water table, but have also partly resolved the problem of rainwater accumulation in these buildings in the monsoon season.

The staff of Government School at Kirti Nagar on Ladowali Road, said their campus was more popularly known as the chhapar wala school (school with a sewage pond), till the time they set up a rainwater harvesting system in 2021. "Since the system has come into execution, the waterlogging problem has got over. The rainwater gets quickly drained out from the rooftops into the underground tanks through the channels provided. The water from the tanks then makes way into the earth through a bore provided", said Ram Pyari, in-charge of the school.

"We only have to ensure cleanliness of the rooftops, which we keep doing at regular intervals", said a teacher. Lupinder Kumar, Sub Divisional Soil Conservation Officer who got the project set up under the Smart City project, said, "It is the simplest and the most easily workable model of groundwater recharge system. There is a wall of gravel between the two underground tanks which acts as a sieve to keep away any dirt. This ensures that only clean water goes into the earth. This wall of gravel has to be washed and cleaned once a year ahead of the monsoon time".

The officer said, "A 500 m sq feet roof of a building can recharge upto 2.5 lakh litres of water a year. Most of the buildings which have been covered in Jalandhar have a rooftop area of 500 m sq feet to 1000 m sq feet. On an average, more than 1 cr litre of water is being recharged into the groundwater by way of the systems installed."

The buildings where the department has installed the systems include the office of Police Commissioner, SSP Rural, All-India Radio, Doordarshan Kendra, Department of Horticulture, Department of Agriculture, Cantt Board Office, ITI for Women at Lajpat Nagar, government schools at Garha, Bidhipur, Gadaipur, Basti Mithu, Kaki Pind, Nehru Garden, Kishanpura etc. "The target is to set up the system in 50 government buildings in the near future", said the officer.