PTI
NEW DELHI
At a time when concerns were raised that there was over-exploitation of groundwater in the State, this is the most refreshing piece of news.
Central government data has revealed that Goa was among 12 other States where there was no over-exploitation of groundwater and the situation of groundwater levels in all the block, taluka, mandal level units in the State were reported to be in the safe category.
It may be recalled that there were several complaints about over-exploitation of groundwater in the State and all owners of private wells, bore-wells and water tanker owners had been instructed to register with government.
The Goa Groundwater Regulation Act had been passed a decade ago, but there is no comprehensive database of private or commercial groundwater users, especially of drinking water wells and bore-wells.
According to data shared by the government in the Lok Sabha, groundwater level in 16 per cent of the taluka, mandal, block level units in the country fall under the “over-exploited” category, while 4 per cent fall under the “critical” category.
Groundwater level of the 6,584 block, mandal, tehsil level units assessed by the Central Groundwater Board reveal that 4,520 units fall under the “safe category”.
As many as 1,034 units have been categorised as “over-exploited”, the data states.
The over exploitation of the groundwater was highest in the States of Punjab (76 per cent) and Rajasthan (66 per cent), followed by Delhi (56 per cent) and Haryana (54 per cent).
There was no over-exploitation of groundwater reported in the states of West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tripura, Odisha, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Goa. Over-exploitation of water: Punjab is No 1
Punjab ranks the highest in the country for over-exploitation of groundwater, government data shows. Over-exploitation of the groundwater was highest in the states of Punjab (76 per cent) and Rajasthan (66 per cent), followed by Delhi (56 per cent) and Haryana (54 per cent), according to data shared by the central government in Lok Sabha last week.
FACTS & FIGURES
n Groundwater level in 16% of taluka, mandal, block level units in country fall under “over-exploited” category
n Four per cent categorised as ‘critical’
n Groundwater level of 6,584 block, mandal, tehsil level units assessed reveal that 4,520 units fall under ‘safe category’
n 1,034 units categorised as ‘over-exploited’
n Nearly 681 block, mandal, taluka level units in country fall under ‘semi-critical’ category
n Nearly 1 per cent of the blocks, mandals and talukas have saline water
