Date:01/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/01/01/stories/2005010106780300.htm

Karnataka - Bijapur

Legislation soon to regulate borewells

By Our Staff Correspondent

BIJAPUR, DEC. 31. The State Government is formulating a comprehensive law aimed at regulating the digging and use of borewells, the Regional Director of the Central Ground Water Board, C.S. Ramashesha, said.

He added that the law is likely to be passed in the next Assembly session.

Participating in a mass awareness programme on rainwater harvesting and artificial recharging of groundwater here today, Mr. Ramashesha said that the State had agreed to bring in legislation to prevent excessive usage of ground water.

He added that the Government has already prepared a draft law.

He said that permission from his department will be mandatory to sink borewells once the proposed legislation comes into effect.

However, the permission will not be necessary if it is for drinking purposes, he clarified.

Flawed

Referring to a few measures initiated by the Government of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to recharge groundwater, he said they were unscientific and were having a negative impact.

After a lot research, his department had developed effective ways of recharging groundwater that can be adopted by the public as well as government agencies.

Unless recharging structures are not connected to deep fractures, groundwater will not be recharged. Instead, the surface layer will get waterlogged, he said. "This is what is happening in many urban centres of Tamil Nadu," he added.

Level alarming

Throwing light on the groundwater situation in India, he said the country has 18 million tubewells, of which Karnatka's has around 1.5 million.

India is only next to the United States that has 20 million tubewells. The water table is going down at an alarming rate due to the over tapping of groundwater.

Mr. Ramashesha said there is a huge gap between the amount of groundwater drawn and that being tapped.

Inaugurating the seminar, the zilla panchayat president, Lalithabai Patil, said that the people and the government agencies should work jointly to increase the level of the water table. Ms. Patil voiced concern over the increasing number of concrete structures and urged people to protect the green belts in the district.

Awareness

The Deputy Commissioner, Mohammad Mohsin, said that local bodies and people's representatives should play an important role in creating awareness about the need to harvest rainwater.

Local bodies should insist on the installation of rainwater harvesting structures while issuing permission for constructing new buildings.

The vice-president of the zilla panchayat, Kalappa Bellundagi, and the Chief Executive Officer, Nagaraj Hampol, spoke. An exhibition on rainwater harvesting was held.