Ministry likely to start consultations with the States

The Central government is likely to begin consultations with the States to frame a Bill to prevent the misuse of groundwater, a rapidly diminishing resource in India.

“Water is a State subject and it is incumbent on States to protect their resources … we will consider a model Bill to help with this,” says Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Uma Bharti.

Experts from the Union Water Resources Ministry have visited a few States to ascertain the groundwater situation, Shashi Shekhar, Secretary, Water Resources, says.

Mr. Shekhar, however, cautioned that it was too early to moot penalties and firm targets for those States that had failed to check water misuse.

All groundwater is considered freshwater, which, however, can also include water from ponds, lakes and other sources of surface water.

The management of water is a State subject in India and that has complicated efforts to manage water resources. The India Water Week — a multidisciplinary conference, set to begin on Monday, to discuss India’s challenges with freshwater management — will have a session on legal remedies to address the depleting groundwater resources and also discuss legal aspects of the issue, Ms. Bharti says.

The India Water Portal says as much as 85 per cent of drinking water in rural area is drawn from wells, with 88 per cent of it used for irrigation.

Up to 48 per cent of the urban population uses groundwater.

A recent study by the Central Ground Water Board found that groundwater exploitation and contamination has affected nearly 60 per cent of Indian districts.

This is not the first time that the Centre has mooted legislation for the management of groundwater.

Since the 1970s, says a report by the now-renamed Planning Commission, laws have been mooted to encourage States to use groundwater more judiciously but except for Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra (drinking water focus), Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and union territories such as Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, these laws haven’t been effectively implemented.

Central experts have already

visited a few

States to ascertain the situation