Now, borewells to be metered

The State government is planning to impose a flat rate on groundwater extracted for commercial purposes in four districts, including Bangalore.

This comes after the State of the Environment Report (SoER) has expressed  serious concern over depleting water resources. The SoER has suggested metering of domestic and agricultural borewells to monitor the use of groundwater.

It has also gone a step ahead in recommending a monitoring mechanism for the groundwater use in the entire State.

The State government now contemplates imposing a flat rate on groundwater extracted for commercial purposes in the districts of Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Kolar and Chikkaballapur.

The draft report, being prepared by Environmental Management and Policy Research Institute (Empri) for the State government, relies on data for arriving at its observations and recommendations.

Indiscriminate use of groundwater has resulted in 124 taluks reaching above 70 per cent exploitation and 22 taluks have already attained critical level of exploitation, the report states.

Karnataka is endowed with 15 cubic km of groundwater, of which 11 cubic km has already been utilised, the report states, seeking immediate policy intervention by the government.

The scarcity of water resources is a direct outcome of growing competition among various sectors - including agriculture, industry and domestic- over the limited quantity of exploitable water resources in the state, the chapter on “water resources and management” of the report adds.

Then, there is the “nexus” between free power and overdraft of groundwater. The State has 8.6 lakh irrigation wells of which 8.07 lakh wells have electric pumps to draft groundwater.

The State’s failure to achieve the planned potential of 35 lakh hectares is one of the reasons for the overexploitation of groundwater. 

At present, the total area irrigated by the groundwater sources is estimated at 45 per cent of the net irrigated area.

On the irrigation front, the report points out that wasteful use of irrigation water apart from growing unsuitable crop in the wrong agro-climatic zones has resulted in land degradation in the form of water logging, alkalisation and acidification.

As a result, in many irrigation projects, degradation of land has caused uncertainty of yields. The report suggests expansion of watershed management and revival of traditional tanks. It has also recommended promotion of water saving techniques such as drip and sprinkler irrigation and promotion of crops which need less water.

The report recommends  water conservation measures in domestic and industrial sectors through higher water tariffs.  It has suggested afforestation measures, identification and evolution of technologies for artificial groundwater that are best suited to specific agro-climatic conditions.

The report has also suggested review of electricity subsidy extended for pumping of groundwater.
Empri has now called for comments on its draft report. The final report will be submitted to the government in the coming weeks.