Gurugram: In order to meet the challenge of falling groundwater reserves in Gurugram the Haryana government formed Gurujal in July last year. Six months into its formation the project that is being sustained by the public-private partnership is set to revive three water bodies s in Gurugram by February this year.
These three water bodies are ponds in Kasan, Khaintawas, and Bilaspur. The total budget in reviving these water bodies has come out to be Rs 2 crores.
If successful this will just be a tip of the iceberg as the project has set an ambitious target of reviving 250 water bodies in Gurugram by 2022. At present, the organisation is working on the revival of 25 ponds. In these 25 ponds, 13 are in the possession of Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and 12 are owned by the Panchayati lands.
Not only are public institutions like the MCG and Deputy Commissioner are the stakeholders but there are five multinational companies that are part of this initiative. The main sponsor of the project is the leading two-wheeler manufacturer in the country.
"There are 37 parameters on which we try to revive the water bodies. The major challenge that lies in front of us is to make sure that there are no issues of land ownership. As most of the water bodies in Gurugram has depleted most of the people raise objections when we start working on the revival of the waterbody," said one of the officials of Gurujal.
According to Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) officials, 47 of the identified waterbodies are tanks, and 135 are water bodies that have not been found in survey records and need further analysis.
According to GMDA, there are 644 waterbodies, covering an area of approximately 1,142 acres and including 124 main water bodies.
Real estate development and rapid urbanisations have resulted in most of the areas of ponds being either converted into an area for commercial usage.
While developing ponds and bunds seems to be a major priority for the district administration, it also has to deal with the illegal bore wells that are also resulting in diminishing the vital resource.