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Bid to check groundwater extraction on coast

By Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI MARCH 18. The Ministry of Environment and Forests will examine all new developmental projects along the coastal region to conserve and manage groundwater resources in the wake of recent reports of increased salinity due to over-extraction.

The Ministry has decided to include a member from the Central Ground Water Board in the expert committees for all developmental and tourism projects, urban townships, and Special Tourism Zones along the coast to ensure that necessary measures are taken while according environmental clearance to the projects.

The National Coastal Zone Management Authority, chaired by V.K. Duggal, has asked the Central Ground Water Board for information on the status of groundwater in some of the large townships along the coastal area.

The data will be available with the Authority by the end of March, sources in the Ministry said. This decision was taken at a meeting of the Authority held in the capital. It was the Central Ground Water Board that drew the attention of the Ministry towards increasing salinity in the groundwater along the coasts and suggested that urgent steps be taken to prevent this incursion, as it would have long-term effect on the communities living along the coast. A study undertaken by the Board has indicated that among the 14 coastal States and Union Territories, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Daman and Diu and Lakshadweep were facing severe salinity incursion due to high extraction of groundwater.

Groundwater extraction at any place should not be below the sea level. As the data provided on the status of groundwater in coastal areas was not comprehensive, the Authority has sought a detailed report that would form the basis of new regulations. Recognising that the groundwater management in the coastal aquifers was complex and involved various social, economic and technical problems, the Central Ground Water Board has suggested that there should be a thorough understanding of the factors governing the discharge of fresh water into sea and hydro-geological conditions governing the distribution of fresh and saline ground water.

Monitoring the consequences in terms of groundwater table and its quality should be done by setting up a network of observational wells and any groundwater development programme in the coastal region should take into account the physical feasibility based on safe yield characteristics of the groundwater basin, the Central Ground Water Board has suggested.

Safe yield is the amount of water which can be withdrawn from a given basin annually without producing undesirable results.

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