About:
- Objective of revised guidelines: To ensure a more robust ground water regulatory mechanism in the country.
- Need of guidelines: To comply with various directions of the NGT and to address various shortcomings in the existing guidelines of ground water extraction.
Key Features of Guidelines:
- introduces the concept of Water Conservation Fee (WCF) for the First Time (The WCF payable varies with the category of the area, type of industry and the quantum of ground water extraction. This is expected to deter large scale ground water extraction by industries),
- encouraging the use of recycled and treated sewage water by industries,
- provision of action against polluting industries,
- mandatory requirement of digital flow meters, piezometers and digital water level recorders
- mandatory water audit by specified industries abstracting ground water,
- mandatory roof top rain water harvesting except for specified industries and
- measures to be adopted to ensure prevention of ground water contamination in premises of polluting industries/ projects,
- Exemption from requirement of No Objection Certificates (NOC) has been given to –
- agricultural users,
- users employing non-energised means to extract water,
- individual households (using less than 1-inch diameter delivery pipe) and
- Armed Forces Establishments during operational deployment or during mobilization in forward locations.
Do You Know?
- India is the largest user of ground water in the world, extracting ground water to the tune of 253 BCM per year, which is about 25% of the global ground water extraction.
- Ground water extraction in India is primarily for irrigation in agricultural activities, accounting for 90% of the annual ground water extraction. The remaining 10% is for drinking & domestic as well as industrial uses.
- Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA), constituted under the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 has the mandate of regulating ground water development through issue of advisories, public notices, grant of No Objection Certificates (NOC) for ground water withdrawal.
