Gurugram to chalk out water plan by March to reduce stress on groundwater

The district administration has decided to prepare a water plan by March this year keeping in view the declining groundwater levels in the district and the estimated population growth by 2041, said officials on Friday.

Deputy commissioner of Gurugram Yash Garg, while chairing a meeting in this regard on Friday, appointed nodal officers from different departments and asked them to submit a detailed report of the current demand and supply of water and other resources from the entire district to the GuruJal Society by January 31.

GuruJal society is an integrated water management initiative of the district administration. “The depleting groundwater level in Gurugram is a matter of concern. Double the amount of water is being wasted in the district, than what gets recharged. In such a situation, the district water plan needs to be made considering the population standards for the next 20 years,” said Garg.

The deputy commissioner said that the data received from different departments will be assessed by mid-February and a draft will be prepared. This draft will be shared on a public domain for taking citizen feedback from February 25 till March 1, and thereafter, the final district water plan will be shared with the Haryana Water Resources Authority (HWRA) in the first week of March.

Officials said that in industrial areas, there is a need to encourage the use of treated waste water and reducing the dependence on ground water sources. In the meeting, Garg said 53% of the ground water in Gurugram district is used for agriculture purposes.

“In such a situation, farmers in the district will have to be made aware and encouraged to adopt micro and drip irrigation. There is also a need to increase the supply line of treated waste water in the district,” said the deputy commissioner.

On Tuesday, the HWRA directed the Gurugram administration to come up with an action plan for increasing the groundwater level in the district. Asserting that the district needs to focus on the use of treated waste water, the authority also asked the district administration to form a sub-committee, under the district water harvesting committee, which will submit daily reports which can be used to make a water action plan for Gurugram.

Gurugram has been a dark zone district and has seena reduction in the groundwater levels for the past few years. A dark zone refers to an area where the groundwater level has dipped beyond the acceptable parameter in a block. An area is first identified as critical before it is declared a dark zone.

According to HWRA, 98 out of 200 villages in Gurugram are under the severely stressed category due to over-extraction of groundwater.