NEW DELHI: Seeking to have uniform regulatory framework on groundwater use across the country, the Centre has come out with a draft guidelines which stipulate existing and new industries, infrastructure and mining projects to obtain ‘no-objection certificate’ (NOC) from district and state-level authorities for drawing groundwater.
The draft also proposes to levy a new water conservation fee based on quantum of groundwater extraction in lieu of existing provision of creating recharge mechanism, including construction of artificial recharge structures, by project proponents.
The proposed fee is based on water use quantity and groundwater capacity of particular area\zone. The amount, therefore, varies from Rs 1 to Rs 6 per cubic metre. The funds raised through this new fee will be used by states for effective ground water management.
At present, the Central Grounder Water Authority (CGWA) has been granting NOC for withdrawal of water by industries/infrastructure/mining projects. The new guidelines will, however, decentralise the process of issuing NOC.
The CGWA, which issued the draft guidelines, claimed that the move was considered “necessary and expedient” to ensure a uniform regulatory framework across the country so that the discriminatory practices in regulation are either mitigated or minimized.
Once the final guidelines are notified, the revenue heads of the district, state nodal agency/State Ground Water Authority and the CGWA will be the NOC issuing authorities depending on the quantum of ground water extraction.
The final guidelines will be notified by the CGWA after analysing comments of stakeholders on this draft after 60 days.
Though the CGWA claimed that the new move would mitigate or minimise discriminatory practices in regulation, water experts differed from it and said that the new guidelines would go towards privatisation of the common property resource.
“These guidelines will further destroy our groundwater lifeline, bringing the crisis much faster than it would have been without this…The district and state level entities have no capacity to understand the implications of giving NOCs”, said Himanshu Thakkar of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP).
Thakkar termed these guidelines unscientific. He said, “There is no assessment as to how much water is available in each aquifer…Without all these assessments in each block, such blanket permission ‘raj’ has no science and therefore it will lead to further destruction of groundwater lifeline of India”.
The draft guidelines exempt farmers from obtaining NOCs. However, it calls for medium and large farmers to adopt water conservation measures. Government infrastructure projects, public water supply agencies and group housing societies with only basic amenities will be exempt from the water conservation fee.
