GUWAHATI: The Assam Government has decided to make it mandatory for builders, flat owners, individuals and commercial organizations to obtain permission from the former to undertake deep boring to extract ground water.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has already asked the Guwahati Development Department (GDD) to suitably amend the existing provisions of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) Act and also to go through relevant Acts of other States to make it mandatory to obtain permission from the government before undertaking any deep boring within the capital city.
Sonowal took strong note of depletion of ground water level in Guwahati city due to rampant deep boring activities for water source at residential areas. He stressed on exploring potential of Brahmaputra River in fulfilling the drinking water needs of the people of the state. He also asked the GDD to develop a concept note for setting up drinking water packaging plants on both sides of the river and also other interventions to tap the excess water during the monsoon season.
Nearly 70 per cent of the city residents are dependent on the ground water as the GMC, Public Health Engineering and Assam Urban Water Supply & Sewerage Board are able to provide water to only 30 per cent of the city’s population.
While the city waits for its three ambitious water projects – South Central Guwahati, East and West Guwahati water projects – the continued dependence on groundwater is fast depleting the reserve. Experts have favoured a cap on the volume of groundwater that highrise buildings can extract, so that the valuable resource is not wasted. In many city areas, wells and ordinary tubewells have run dry as nearby high-rises continue to draw groundwater in huge amounts.
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