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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Delhi water table falling by 2m/yr by Dipak Kumar Dash

Delhi water table falling by 2m/yr by Dipak Kumar Dash

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published Published on Mar 22, 2010   modified Modified on Mar 22, 2010

The alarm bells are ringing right below our feet. Delhi and portions of Rajasthan falling in the National Capital Region (NCR) extract almost double the amount of groundwater than is recharged every year. The situation is equally bad in NCR portions of Haryana, particularly Gurgaon and Faridabad, which largely depend on groundwater.

A status report on groundwater by the NCR Planning Board (NCRPB) reveals that the water table in Delhi was dipping by 2 metres every year. The report says the city currently draws 0.47 billion cubic metres (bcm) of water from the ground every year while only 0.28 bcm gets recharged. That means Delhi loses a whopping 0.19 bcm of groundwater in a year.

In the case of Rajasthan, the report says the annual extraction is 1.14 bcm against an availability of 0.79 bcm. Haryana's record is only slightly better. It draws 2.72 bcm whereas the annual availability is 2.64 bcm.

The report says groundwater resources in seven out of the nine blocks in Delhi, 25 out of 42 blocks in Haryana and all four blocks in Alwar (Rajasthan) are overexploited.

Overall, NCR uses up 7.59 bcm of groundwater in a year against an annual availability of 8.47 bcm. The numbers appear good only because of high recharge rates in the NCR portions of Uttar Pradesh, the report says. These places -- Bulandshahr, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Khurja and Gautam Budh Nagar -- together draw 3.25 bcm against an annual availability of 4.76 bcm.

"Though more availability of surface water in the UP region has saved us so far, rapid urbanization in districts adjoining Delhi will soon push up the demand for water even further. That may lead to an unprecedented crisis, with no relief of surplus availability," said NCRPB member secretary Noor Mohammad.

Groundwater is the third major source of water in NCR. The report mentions that the total water demand in NCR for domestic, industrial, fire fighting and irrigation purposes was estimated at 33.39 bcm per year in 2005. And the demand is likely to increase steeply in the future due to population growth, rapid urbanization, an upward looking economy and rising standards of living.

Mohammad said the regional planning board has now prepared a plan for recharging groundwater in the region. The report points out that the groundwater level in NCR is getting critical in the absence of a broad framework for rainwater harvesting and a plan to save the disappearing of ponds and lakes. Though NCR receives 22.54 bcm of rainwater every year, approximately 16.9 bcm falls during the monsoon season alone. It is estimated that on an average, 6.27 bcm of water is lost due to surface run-off.

The report points out that region's capacity to store as much as 183.82 bcm of groundwater remains highly unutilized.

Now, the planning board wants to reverse the trend. It has identified 45,000 recharge structures which could yield approximately 1 bcm of groundwater annually. The identified locations include areas in the Aravali ridge, abandoned quarries, village ponds, urban areas, the flood plains of Yamuna, Ganga and Hindon, and institutional and residential buildings. This can be done by desilting ponds and creating artificial recharge pits in both urban and rural areas.

The report has proposed 100 basin recharge structures and 100 river recharge pits in 95sq km of the Yamuna flood plains in Delhi. It also shows that approximately 250 trenches can be constructed along the ridge to harvest 2.5 million cubic meter (MCM) rainwater besides restoring about 3,000 abandoned quarries in Aravalis for channelizing run-off rainwater. Delhi could also improve its groundwater situation by reviving 200 ponds with vertical shafts and desilting 500 existing ponds, it says.


TheTimes of India, 22 March, 2010, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Delhi-water-table-falling-by-2m/yr/articleshow/5709811.cms
 

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