Tankers are fast depleting Mumbai’s groundwater

MUMBAI: The authorities don't have any keep watch over on groundwater extraction from non-public wells in Mumbai, placing the town’s water safety in peril. Water tanker homeowners and housing societies who sell groundwater from bore wells on their premises are benefiting from the town’s absence of watershed mapping.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has now admitted a petition in quest of Rs 222 crore as compensation in opposition to the state for causing environmental injury via industrial exploitation of groundwater from two non-public wells in south Mumbai.



The period of groundwater extraction through the two wells as mentioned within the petition is 11 years. Going through this, mavens estimate that illegal industry price Rs 33,300 crore has been generated over a decade via 300 non-public wells present at the town’s residential premises (200 of the wells are in south Mumbai). The petition, admitted through the NGT’s Pune bench, is through RTI activist Sureshkumar Dhoka.

The homeowners of the wells, as mentioned within the petition, are the “Pandya brothers”, who reside in Cward (Bhuleshwar, Kalbadevi and part of Marine Drive). The NGT has already ordered the closure of the two wells. The topic is about to be heard on May 28. If an order favouring the petition is passed, it's going to be the country’s biggest such payout.


As according to regulation, permission needs to be sought from the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) for promoting water from wells. But neither the Pandyas nor the other homeowners of private wells, similar to housing societies, in Mumbai have done so, the petition says.


The downside is a severe loss of monitoring: None a number of the CGWA, the town and suburban creditors, the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA) or the BMC has the manpower or assets to curb the practice of illegal groundwater extraction. This places the town’s water desk at nice possibility.


The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) has warned that if Mumbai’s groundwater is over-extracted, saline water from the sea will enter the subsoil from the coast and contaminate the water desk, rendering groundwater unpotable. The CGWB has warned that through 2025, India’s reasonable groundwater availability according to particular person shall be just 25% of what it used to be in 1951.


Going through Mumbai’s massive surface concretization, this percentage for the town is projected to be much less than the nationwide reasonable. Meanwhile, Mumbai Water Tanker Association president Jasbir Bira stated tanker homeowners don’t thoughts taking permission, but they perform within the first place as a result of large portions of the town revel in water shortage.
Tankers are fast depleting Mumbai’s groundwater Tankers are fast depleting Mumbai’s groundwater Reviewed by Kailash on May 09, 2018 Rating: 5
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