Centre begins study of poor water quality in district: Minister

Nitin Jain

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Ludhiana, July 25

The Union Government has begun an extensive study to check the poor quality of water in Ludhiana district.

The National Aquifer Mapping Study under National Project on Aquifer Management (NAQUIM) will provide issue-based scientific inputs for groundwater management, Union Minister of State for Jal Shakti Rajbhushan Choudhary has said.

Replying to a question by Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab Raghav Chadha, in the ongoing Monsoon Session of Parliament, he said the National Aquifer Mapping Studies were carried out in the state for an area of 50,369 sq km, based on which, groundwater management plans had been prepared and reports shared with the state and district authorities for implementation.

“NAQUIM 2.0 studies are being carried out in priority areas of Ludhiana and Sangrur districts under the poor quality and over-exploited area category, respectively, in the state to provide issue-based scientific inputs for groundwater management,” he stated while informing that master plan for artificial recharge to groundwater 2020 had been prepared by the CGWB in consultation with states/ UTs, which was a macro-level plan indicating various structures for different terrain conditions of the country, including estimated cost.

In the state, the master plan envisages about 11 lakh rainwater harvesting and artificial recharge structures to harness about 1,200 million cubic meter (MCM) of rainwater. “The plan has been shared with the state government, which was devising a suitable action plan for its implementation in priority areas,” Choudhary said.

Further, the government is implementing Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) in the country since 2019 under which special emphasis is being given for rainwater harvesting/groundwater recharge. Currently, JSA-2024 is being implemented in 10 water-stressed districts of the state under which various groundwater recharge and conservation-related works are being taken up in convergence with various Central and state schemes.

He said the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare was implementing the Per Drop More Crop (PDMC) component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), which was operational from 2015-16 in the country. The PMKSY-PDMC mainly focuses on water use efficiency at farm level through precision/ micro irrigation. Besides promoting precision irrigation (drip and sprinkler irrigation system) and better on-farm water management practices (to optimise the use of available water resources), the component also supports micro-level water storage or, water conservation/management activities to supplement micro irrigation.

In addition, the minister detailed that the Centre had taken several other significant initiatives for the improvement of groundwater situation in the country.

Besides, the state government was also taking measures for sustainable management of the groundwater in the state.

“Groundwater rejuvenation projects are mainly taken up by various line departments of the state governments under Central and state schemes and once completed the operation and maintenance of the structures also become the responsibility of the state governments concerned,” he said.

Water-level depleting fast

In what appears to be a matter of serious concern, the groundwater level is depleting fast at an annual average of 51-cm in the state. This was even worse than neighbouring Haryana but HP was the worst.

With 115 of the total 176 monitored wells showing fall in the water level, the average depletion level has breached the 65-per cent mark in the agrarian state.

In Haryana, which along with Punjab is also the food bowl of the country, the average depletion level was almost 40 per cent with 93 of the state’s 233 monitored wells registering decline in the water table.

The hill state HP, which also shares boundaries with Punjab and Haryana, has the worst ratio of groundwater level depletion with 58, accounting for around 72 per cent of its 81 monitored wells showing decline in the water level.

The data pertaining to Punjab was shared by the minister in response to Raghav’s unstarred question.

Raghav had sought data on areas where the groundwater table had depleted to alarming levels in the past years in the state, the data on how the falling water table will affect the paddy cultivation and subsequently farmers in the Malwa region, measures taken by the government to restore groundwater in the state, which is depleting with an average of 51-cm every year, and details of the groundwater restoration projects, which are not operational or working below their capacity in the past five years in Punjab.