‘Keep tab on houses owned by individuals to save ground water’
17 April 2015 10:58 PM GMT
Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) on Thursday informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that groundwater level in Noida is under “stress” and recommended cap on the number of houses being owned by individuals. “Ground water in Noida is under more stress than Greater Noida, which is currently under developmental stage industrially. Although ground water condition in Greater Noida is generally better than Noida, the situation may not sustain after completion of industrial development in the region,” CGWA said.
“It should become mandatory that one family purchases only one house for residential purpose and not merely for investments. This measure will discourage indiscriminate concretisation of area and will increase ground water recharge at the same time,” CGWA said. The submissions were made in an affidavit placed before a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar.
The affidavit was filed in response to the tribunal’s direction to CGWA to place before it a comparative study with regard to groundwater levels in Noida. CGWA has further said that after inception of Noida, the land-use pattern of the area has changed from primarily agricultural to mostly industrial and residential.
“This change brought ground water under stress in two ways. Industrialisation and urbanisation encouraged the indiscriminate exploitation of ground water and concretisation due to industrial and urban development caused increase in surface run off, thus inhibiting the rain water recharge for ground water,” it said.
The tribunal was hearing the plea of Noida -based environmental activist Vikrant Tongad, who has alleged that real estate developers were withdrawing ground water, violating its orders. Tongad had said that the underground water situation has reached critical dimensions in Noida and Greater Noida and there is also a serious water pollution problem there.
“It should become mandatory that one family purchases only one house for residential purpose and not merely for investments. This measure will discourage indiscriminate concretisation of area and will increase ground water recharge at the same time,” CGWA said. The submissions were made in an affidavit placed before a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar.
The affidavit was filed in response to the tribunal’s direction to CGWA to place before it a comparative study with regard to groundwater levels in Noida. CGWA has further said that after inception of Noida, the land-use pattern of the area has changed from primarily agricultural to mostly industrial and residential.
“This change brought ground water under stress in two ways. Industrialisation and urbanisation encouraged the indiscriminate exploitation of ground water and concretisation due to industrial and urban development caused increase in surface run off, thus inhibiting the rain water recharge for ground water,” it said.
The tribunal was hearing the plea of Noida -based environmental activist Vikrant Tongad, who has alleged that real estate developers were withdrawing ground water, violating its orders. Tongad had said that the underground water situation has reached critical dimensions in Noida and Greater Noida and there is also a serious water pollution problem there.
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