Punjab, Haryana, UP among top 10 abusers of groundwater

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 23

With no clear guidelines in place, it is not just basmati/rice and sugarcane cultivation that is “exploiting and exporting” India’s precious groundwater, latest government data reveals 234 mineral and packaged drinking water and soft drink units issued state/Centre NOCs in the past three years extracted a whopping 96,99,872.25 cubic metres (10 million litres) of it

Basmati accounts for almost 25 per cent of the total agricultural exports from India. As per reports, basmati exports, which grew by 9 per cent last year, stands around 3.36 million tonnes currently. It is said that to produce 1 kg of rice on an average 4,000 litres of water is required. One can multiply the two figures to come out with a ballpark figure though, as per experts, India is “virtually exporting 10 trillion litres of water, of which one-fifth would be surface/groundwater”.

About the booming industry of mineral/packaged drinking water, soft drink and beverages, minister of the newly constituted Jal Shakti Gajendra Singh Shekhawat recently told Parliament that in the past three years, 234 units were issued NOCs by the CGWA.

The quantum they used was around 96,99,872.25 cubic metres (or 10 million litres).

With 46,86,324 cubic metres, Uttar Pradesh was the highest abuser of the precious ground water. Besides UP, water-stressed Haryana (3,06,120 cubic metres) and Punjab (8,44,660 cubic metres) ranked among the top 10 groundwater abusers, along with Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Across the country, 1,76,07 units have been issued state and 7,047 central NOCs so far, 926 of these are in Punjab and 840 in Haryana alone.

As per groundwater regulation norms, industries are required to undertake groundwater recharge measures commensurate with the quantum of water abstraction approved by the CGWA.

The CGWA, in regulation guidelines in December, proposed introduction of Water Conservation Fee (WCF), which was struck down by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in January 2019

Coming down heavily on the government, the NGT said guidelines had “serious shortcomings”. “It is clear that rather than laying down stricter norms for extraction of groundwater for commercial purposes and putting in place a robust institutional mechanism for surveillance and monitoring, extraction of groundwater has been liberalised adding to the crisis, unmindful of the ground situation and likely impact it will have on environment,” it said

On suggestion of levying water conservation fee, it said, “The fee virtually gives licence to harness groundwater to any extent” and directed the Environment Ministry to constitute a committee to examine “the issue of appropriate policy for conservation of groundwater”.

Damning figures

• Packaged water, soft drink units withdrew 10 m litres from ground in 3 years
• 46,86,324  cubic metres of groundwater was extracted in UP in 3 yrs
• 8,44,660 cubic metres was the extraction in Punjab
• 3,06,120 cubic metres was the figure in case of Haryana