CGWA against groundwater use for construction purposes

New Delhi: The Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) has proposed against granting permission for extracting water for construction activities in a bid to ensure that the water table does not get depleted much.

In the draft guidelines "for issuing no objection certificates (NOC) for groundwater withdrawal", it has also said that the use of groundwater for purposes other than drinking, fire-fighting, horticulture etc, shall not exceed 25 per cent of the total extraction.

The body has barred use of fresh groundwater for recreational purposes like swimming pools, the draft says.

The authority came out with the draft guidelines four days ago and has sought suggestions and comments on it within 60 days.

The guidelines, the authority has said, will supersede all the existing ones, if made effective.

"No-objection certificate (NOC) shall not be granted for extraction of groundwater for construction activities in project in critical and over-exploited areas," the guidelines say. According to the authority, there are four categories of areas based on their use of ground water.

One is 'safe' areas which have ground water potential for development. Another is 'semi-critical' areas where cautious groundwater development is recommended.

'Critical' and 'over-exploited' areas are those where there should be intensive monitoring and evaluation and future development be linked with water conservation measures.

According to the 2013 survey of 6,584 units (which could be blocks, talukas, mandals, watersheds), around 1,034 were found to be over-exploited, while 253 were critical and 681 semi-critical. As many as 96 were identified as saline, while 4,520 were marked as "safe".

The authority has also proposed that all users drawing or proposing to draw groundwater through non-energised (pumps) and pumps of up to two horse power from a single tubewell on their premises will be exempted from seeking the NOC.