South Haryana still battling water scarcity
Gurugram: Even today, in the rural areas of Mewat where women can still be seen traversing long distances to fill their earthen pots with groundwater from the wells. According to the NITI Aayog, Mewat is the most backward district in the country but the situation in neighbouring Gurugram does not fare better with citizens registering their protest every summer for not getting water. Led by Gurugram, South Haryana is a water deficient part of the state, a challenge that has also been admitted by Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar.
To deal with the problem, the BJP government not only plans to bring Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal but also stoppage of the overflow of Indus water to Pakistan and divert it to areas of South Haryana. Both these plans, however, have their challenges and face difficulty in execution. The growth of Gurugram in recent years and their dependence on water supply has led to the growth of tanker mafia which continues to be powerful even in this election season. On October 15, the water tanker mafia reportedly broke the water pipeline which reportedly affected the water supply to 370 families.
According to an official survey, an average Gurugram resident consumes roughly about 250 liters of water every day. In all, the overall requirement of the city is 350 MGD daily. The two water boosting stations at Basai and Chandu Budhera produce over 450 MGD of water that should be enough, yet 45,000 households are either not receiving water supply or getting contaminated water.
Public water officials cite that water being wasted through leakage of pipes, incessant wastage of water and the stronghold of tanker mafia is resulting in the water crisis escalating in the city with every passing year. A host of construction activities that have been occurring in Gurugram have also resulted in the pipes being broken on a regular basis, resulting in wastage of water. Despite the public officials claiming that actions are being initiated against the persons who are illegally extracting water, there are 15,600 illegal borewells that are present in the city. The groundwater level has declined in Gurugram over the last 20 years, with the city witnessing a decline at a rate of 1.5m to 2m every year. A recent official report had cited that between 2014 to 2018, the groundwater levels in Gurugram had dropped to 10 meters.
