Groundwater issues

It is heartening to note that the Gauhati High Court has directed various State government authorities, along with the police, Guwahati Municipal Corporation and Transport department to take steps to put an end to any illegal extraction of groundwater in the city. As reported by this newspaper in its Sunday edition, the High Court has also asked the authorities to take, if necessary, appropriate steps against errant persons as per the provisions of the Assam Ground Water Control and Regulation Act, 2012 and relevant Rules framed in 2022. It is a fact that there has been both illegal and indiscriminate extraction of groundwater in Guwahati. It is also a fact that there are at least three categories of people who have been extracting groundwater in the city. While the first category is the owners of apartment buildings who extract groundwater in huge quantities, the second category is the ordinary tax-payer citizen whose small hand pumps and wells have dried up because of indiscriminate extraction by the apartment buildings in their respective localities. The third category is the unscrupulous supplier of water to households by tankers big and small. Though an Act is in place to regulate the extraction of groundwater, what however must be taken into account is the fact that it is the gross failure of the authorities concerned – including GMC, GMDA, Jal Board and PHE department – that citizens have been compelled to extract groundwater. Had there been government supply in Guwahati, as is the case in most capital cities of the country, no citizen would have loved to spend their hard-earned money to install expensive bore wells to extract groundwater. And as indiscriminate extraction of groundwater by the first two categories has led to the drying up of the small hand-pumps and wells, the ordinary tax-payer citizen is left with no choice but to buy water on a daily basis from unscrupulous suppliers. It is not known whether the authorities concerned have informed the High Court or not about their gross failure to provide piped water to the Guwahatians. As of now, it is common knowledge that hardly 25 to 30 per cent of the city-dwellers get piped water. Whether piped water supply is regular or erratic is another matter. With the High Court rightly directing the concerned authorities to check the illegal extraction of groundwater, what is required is a commitment from the authorities concerned that all the taxpayers will be provided piped water within a close deadline. And, till the time piped water supply does not begin, it should be the duty of the authorities concerned to make necessary arrangements to supply water to the citizens through alternative means.