Households hide borewell secret

Despite repeated requests of the city government about disclosure of borewells in the city, only 6,000 Delhiites have accepted having one at their home.

The National Green Tribunal had asked the government to maintain a data of private borewells in Delhi which are illegal and leading to a steep decline in the ground water level of the city.

The data is disturbing as more than 40 per cent of Delhi’s population lives in unauthorised colonies where Delhi Jal Board piped water supply is not available.
The DJB supplies 850 million gallons day (MGD) water to the city against its demand of more than 1100-1200 MGD.

It clearly indicates that more than 400 MGD of water is being used trough illegal borewells in the residential colonies of Delhi.

“We will have to find a more effective and stringent plan to know about the number of illegal borewells in the city,” said a senior Delhi government official.

The government officials also blamed the Delhi Police and the municipal corporations for facilitating the digging of borewells in lieu of bribe.

“It is a joint responsibility of the law enforcement agency, local bodies and the Delhi government. But it seems like the police and the municipal bodies are not acting against the people who are installing borewells at their residence,” a senior Delhi government official said on condition of anonymity.

“It is not possible that anyone installs a borewell without the knowledge of police and local body. It seems like the two agencies are facilitating the installation of borewells,” the official added.

The officials also blamed the multiplicity of authorities for lack of crackdowns on illegal borewells. Now the biggest challenge for the government is to find out the illegal borewells which are operational mostly in the densely populated areas of Delhi.

“There are many options including those of using sonar wave machines in the suspected areas. We are doing a research on the most budget friendly way to find out what can be done for this,” the official said.