Gurugram: Survey in 162 villages to map water supply-demand gap

GURUGRAM: The Haryana Water Research Authority (HWRA) is conducting a door-to-door survey to map the gap between water supply and demand in 162 of the 217 villages in Gurugram , aiming to make a plan and take measures to recharge groundwater in the district.

“The plan is to reduce the gap between the demand and supply of water by 45% in the next three years,” said Keshni Anand Arora, the HWRA chairperson.
The district, the experts have established, currently extracts three times more groundwater than is recharged.
“We have already covered 139 villages in Gurugram where teams went door to door to note the water sources and the demand,” said SS Rawat, superintendent engineer, irrigation department, Gurugram .
Out of the 162 villages under the survey, 104 are in ‘red category’, which means they are severely groundwater stressed. In these villages, the groundwater reaches up to 30 metres below the surface, said SS Rawat, also the south Haryana nodal officer for Atal Bhujal Yojana, a groundwater management scheme launched by the prime minister in 2019.
In the remaining 58 villages, groundwater reaches up to 20 metres below the surface.
“What we are doing is visiting every village and finding out the sources of water, how much each family needs, and what the demand of these families will be in the next five years. The data will help us map the water gap and frame how to reuse waste water and store rainwater effectively. We are framing a solution, keeping in mind the ground situation,” Rawat added.
When asked about the plans for bridging the water gap, Arora said, “We are creating ponds to store water and recharge the groundwater table. Also, micro-irrigation is a key. We have been asking farmers to use water sprinklers and drippers and stressing on crop diversification to save water. For crop diversification, the government has been providing people an incentive if they are not opting for paddy (which requires a lot of water).”
Also, random inspections are on to check the illegal extraction of groundwater in the district, he added.