Chandigarh: Seven districts in Haryana will have zero availability of groundwater in future as the state is over extracting water by 138.91%, according to a report by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), prepared on the basis of a survey in 2017.
The situation is likely to worsen as CGWB is compiling details of surveys carried out last year. Scientists said preliminary findings suggest water levels have dropped from four metres to 14 metres.
Reports suggest the state has only 10.15 billion cubic metres (BCM) of groundwater.
Gurugram, Faridabad, Palwal and Mahendergarh are the four NCR districts, while the remaining three are Fatehabad, Kaithal, and Sirsa. Kaithal has 227% “over extraction” of water, followed by 220% in Gurugram, 197% in Sirsa, 187% in Palwal, 161% in Fatehabad, 125% in Faridabad and 106% in Mahendergarh.
The report said of the 128 blocks of the state, only 26 were found to be safe when it came to groundwater availability. Also, 78 were found to have been overexploited, 21 were semi-critical and three were found to be critical. Rapid urbanisation and unchecked exploitation are said to be behind the trend in Gurugram. For 10 years, the government has even banned the digging of borewell without permission by private colonisers and developers.Paddy- and cotton-sowing areas have been found to be responsible for the overdrawing water in Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Karnal, Sirsa and Fatehabad.
The state government, in January this year, set up the Haryana Water Resources (Conservation, Regulation and Management) Authority headed by former chief secretary Keshni Anand Arora. “Saline water too has emerged as a major threat. Government has made a two-pronged approach: one, asking paddy farmers to go for crop diversification; and two, programmes for recharging groundwater and encouraging rainwater harvesting in urban areas,” said an official.
Naresh Yadav, former MLA of Ateli who has been spearheading agitations for water in southern Haryana, said the state had been fighting for three decades, “Had the government woken up in time, this situation would not have arisen. Even now, we are pressing for completion of Satluj-Yamuna link canal as this lift system will not be feasible for long.”