NGT slams Centre over inadequate measures to prevent wastage of groundwater

The wastage of water is taking place in many ways such as overflowing of overhead tanks in residential and commercial areas, the plea said

Slamming Centre over inadequate measures to prevent wastage and misuse of groundwater, the National Green Tribunal said that there has to be specific time-bound action plans and monitoring to check overexploitation.

The NGT principal bench headed by its Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said that response filed both by the Ministry of Jal Shakti as well as Delhi Jal Board (DJB) on check misuse of groundwater does not show clear enforceable policy.

The tribunal was hearing a plea filed by Rajendra Tyagi, a BJP councillor from Ghaziabad in Haryana and an NGO, Friends, alleging that steps are not being taken to prevent the misuse of water.

"The affidavit is vague and general. It is stated that Jal Shakti Ministry has written letters to the States to prevent misuse of groundwater. Apart from writing a letter, there has to be specific time-bound action plans and monitoring which should include coercive measures for enforcement," the bench said.

The NGT also said that the affidavit filed by the DJB is wholly inadequate to address the problem.

"Overriding environmental law principle of ''Polluter Pays'' must be invoked by all the regulators to ensure that wastage of water is not profitable and cost of such wastage is recovered which is necessary for the restoration of the environment without merely limiting to statutory changes which are no substitute to ''Polluter Pays'' principle," the bench said.

The petitioners said that 4,84,20,000 cubic metres of water was wasted every single day and around 163 million population of the country was facing deprivation of fresh, drinkable water at the hands of few others who are almost habitual of wasting and misusing precious fresh potable water.

"Around 600 million people are facing extreme water stress in the country. Millions of litres of fresh potable water are being wasted in absence of appropriate regulations or action-plans to curb the same," the plea said.

The demand for water is expected to grow from 40 billion cubic metres currently to around 220 billion cubic metres in 2025.

The Composite Water Management Index report prepared by the Niti Ayog has clearly cautioned that 21 cities in India will run out of groundwater as soon as by 2020, affecting 100 million people," the plea said.