To curb illegal groundwater exploitation in Delhi, Delhi government is preparing to bring a new Borewell Policy. Officials said that a draft of this policy has been prepared. Under the new system, it will be made mandatory to install water meters on all domestic and commercial borewells in the capital, so that the use of groundwater can be accurately monitored. According to officials, the new policy aims to prevent uncontrolled and illegal exploitation of groundwater, conserve water resources and make groundwater management in the capital more transparent and effective. With the installation of water meters, it will be possible to know how much ground water is being extracted in different areas and on the basis of that, necessary regulatory steps can be taken.
According to officials, the draft of this policy has been prepared. Under the proposed policy, it will be made mandatory to install water meters on all domestic and commercial borewells, so that groundwater usage can be accurately monitored. Officials said that the new policy will also include a provision to regularize thousands of illegal borewells currently operating. The aim of the government is to establish effective monitoring and control over the exploitation of groundwater by bringing illegal borewells within the legal ambit.
Under the proposed system, water meters will be installed on all domestic and commercial borewells and consumers will be charged based on the actual quantity of groundwater extracted from the ground. A senior government official, on condition of anonymity, said that the objective of this policy is not to give just one-time approval, but to continuously monitor borewells and impose user charges based on actual groundwater usage. In the new system, a water meter will be installed on every borewell connection, so that it can be recorded how much groundwater a consumer has extracted. The bill will be issued on that basis.
The official said that at present the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has the power to impose rules to impose environmental compensation in cases of illegal borewells, but there is no fixed tariff for legally extracted groundwater. For this reason, Delhi Government has sought suggestions from CGWB and Environment Department on the way to determine groundwater usage charges. The proposed policy will also include the process of regularizing thousands of illegal borewells operating in the capital, so that their use can be monitored by bringing them within the legal ambit. The government believes that this will help in controlling groundwater exploitation and better management of water resources.
There will be a door-to-door survey to check water connections.
The government is preparing to start a door-to-door survey soon to stop illegal borewells in Delhi. A senior official said that since most of the illegal borewells are built inside houses, it is very difficult to identify them and their number could reach lakhs. The government will conduct a door-to-door survey to check water connections. Besides, it is also being considered that during the survey, information related to borewells should also be collected from every house, so that illegal borewells can be correctly identified and necessary action can be taken.
Under current rules, setting up borewells without prior permission is prohibited in the capital. Applications for setting up borewells are examined by district level advisory committees comprising officials from the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), district administration, Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and other concerned agencies. These committees generally permit borewells only in areas where the groundwater level is not in the ‘critical’ category, so as to conserve groundwater resources and prevent aggravation of water crisis.
New system will be made to monitor groundwater exploitation
A senior official of Delhi Jal Board said that the existing borewell permission system is in force since 2010. Under this, applicants get permission by depositing a processing fee of Rs 500 only once. However, after getting permission, there is no effective system to control how much groundwater is being extracted from the concerned borewell. According to the official, to overcome this shortcoming in the proposed new policy, it is proposed to install mandatory water meters and impose regular user charges like water bills. This will enable monitoring of groundwater usage and help in controlling over-exploitation. Officials said the draft of the policy has been sent to the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) under the Union Jal Shakti Ministry for suggestions and the purpose of fixing charges for groundwater exploitation. Till the time of writing the news, no official response was received from the spokesperson of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) on this subject.
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