Delhi Jal Board wants changes in groundwater extraction guidelines

It will not be possible for the Delhi Jal Board to implement the new guidelines prohibiting groundwater extraction by households and industries.

If the officials of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) are to be believed, the guidelines are not practical and the board will appeal for amendments.

According to the latest guidelines issued by the Central Ground Water Board last week, groundwater extraction by households with regular piped connections and industries in scarce water zones is prohibited.

They will be applicable for residential houses in 6,607 notified areas in many areas in the country, including Rajasthan, Punjab, Maharashtra and districts of south, south-west and Yamuna flood plain in Delhi, the entire Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Ballabgarh.

However, even as activists have welcomed the revised guidelines, the DJB has said that implementing these is not “doable”.

“There are a lot of places where we supply water but there is deficit, so, people have to depend on borewells. Implementing these guidelines would mean denying them water,” said R S Tyagi, Member Secretary, Delhi Jal Board.

“Moreover, we don’t have enough workforce. Such is the staff crunch that we are left with only 19,000 people for meter reading,” he said.

The official said the board will “definitely” approach the body for amendments in the guidelines.

The DJB is instead planning to levy a cess on the households to dicourage them to extract groundwater indiscriminately.

“Currently we are only targetting industries and commercial complexes in areas such as Bawana and Narela as directed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to levy a cess on industries drawing groundwater.

We are charging Rs 2,100 per month from water intensive units and Rs 1,700 from non intensive units. The exercise is being carried out in phases and we will try to enforce it in entire Delhi in the next phase,” Tyagi said.