News: Groundwater levels recede again in Gurugram, depth nearly doubles in 15 yrs-13-08-2021
GURUGRAM: The city’s pre-monsoon groundwater levels have receded again this year, this time by an average of 0.78 metres compared to 2020, underlining the grave concerns on overextraction that have dogged the city for years without a solution being found to significantly slow the trend, if not reverse it.
In the past four years, the average groundwater level of Gurugram block has fallen by over 4 metres to 36.99m below ground level this year. The city has been perilously close to a water crisis since 2013, when it was categorised as “overexploited” by the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA). In 15 years, the average depth at which groundwater is available has almost doubled. It was 19.85m in 2006.
TOI had reported in 2018 that the city’s water table had fallen by 82% in a decade with the pace of decline in the 0.5-2m range annually. According to the groundwater cell’s records, the average pre-monsoon water level in Gurugram was 33.23m in 2018, which dipped to 35.85m in 2019. This further declined to 36.21m in 2020 and 36.99m this year.
Experts have established that the city is extracting three times more groundwater than it is recharging. There are no regularised water connections in over 40% of the city, and people living in these areas are dependent on groundwater, according to the groundwater cell.
The extraction pressure on groundwater will only increase as the city’s population continues to increase in consonance with the rapid economic growth that it has witnessed. The 2031 master plan envisages a population of 40 lakh-plus.
Other blocks of Gurugram, meanwhile, have reported a slight improvement in the water table this year. While Sohna’s water level rose by 0.52m to 25.59m this year (from 26.11m in 2020), Farrukhnagar recorded a 0.41m increase from 20.56m last year to 20.15m in 2021. Pataudi’s water level, however, dipped from 37.79m in the previous year to 38.37m this year, a decline of 0.58m.
In 2019, the Gurugram administration had sealed around 400 illegal borewells and launched a helpline for people to lodge complaints on the issue in June the same year. Hydrologist VS Lamba from the groundwater cell said efforts were showing results. “We have been taking corrective measures regarding illegal extraction of water. As a result, we have been able to reduce the fluctuation of the water table in recent years.”
Experts said that there is a need to map extraction hotspots in the city. “The authorities need to identify hotspots where the extraction rate is high and take remedial action accordingly,” Chetan Aggarwal, an environmental analyst, said.
Not just Gurugram, depleting water levels are a concern for the entire state. Haryana has witnessed an overall decline of 19% in aquifers (underground layers of water-bearing rock) in the last five years. The average water level was 17.75m in June 2015, which had fallen to 21.18m in 2020.
CGWA records also showed that out of 141 blocks in Haryana, 85 blocks (60% of the state’s geographical area) had reached the ‘red’ category in 2020 due to groundwater overexploitation. In 2004, CGWA had reported that 55 blocks were in the ‘red category’. The annual groundwater withdrawal in Haryana is 137% of its annual extractable groundwater resources, compared to the national average of 63%.
Keshni Anand, chairperson of the Haryana Water Resources Authority, said, “Depletion of water levels is a cause for concern in the state. Irrigation is the prime reason behind it as crops like paddy require large amounts of water for cultivation. The Haryana government has been giving a way out to paddy farmers with micro-irrigation. We are adopting a holistic approach to address the problem and will soon have a monitoring system in every village to study water table fluctuation.”
