Out of 75 UP districts, 34 'over-exploited' for groundwater

AGRA: Out of 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh, 34 are 'overexploited' for groundwater, Rajya Sabha was told on Monday. Shamli and Pratapgarh districts top the list with 140% groundwater exploitation rate followed by Saharanpur (132%), Firozabad (117%) and Agra (113%). Notably, in April, the National Green Tribunal had issued notice to several Uttar Pradesh agencies after residents moved the tribunal over depleting groundwater in Ghaziabad and Hapur districts.
The written reply was given by Uma Bharti, Union minister of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation, to a query by Chhattisgarh MP Chhaya Verma on names of details of districts in the country, including Uttar Pradesh, where water table has gone down considerably up to the level of Dark Zone;
In the reply, 33 districts of UP were declared to be in the ‘over-exploited’ assessment units (As on 31st March 2011). State capital Lucknow along with Aligarh, Allahabad, G B Nagar, Ghaziabad, Kanpur (city), Kasganj, Kaushambi, Mathura, Meerut, and Varanasi among others falls in this category.
U C Srivastava, senior hydrogeologist, UP ground water department, said, “The dependency on the ground water has been on the increase, whereas rain water is the only source to recharge ground water. In UP, for instance. More than 70% of irrigation in agricultural fields is being done through ground water. The UP government is the first state in the country to formulate to deal with this situation with a focus on conjunctive use of water."
“Moreover, 10 districts have been chosen where efforts are being made to install rain water harvesting system at government building. Later this project will be extended to other districts," Srivastava added.
In Agra, the situation is very grim. The groundwater level in Agra division continues to deplete at an alarming rate due to unregulated and excessive extraction and relentless concretization of green zones. According to officials, out of 15 blocks in districts under Agra division, 10 are in over exploited category while one block has been listed as critical.
Senior geophysicist V K Upadhyaya said, “Dependency on ground water has been on the increase in the district. It was 67% some 10 years back, now it has increased to 80%."
When water is taken at faster rate than it should be replenished, then it falls into the over exploited category, while it is between 90%-100%, it falls in to critical group, Upadhaya explained.
According to a recent survey done in Agra, industrial units are consuming excessive quantity of water. On a daily basis, they are taking 18 times more water than the total water requirement of the entire human population of the district.
The Union ministry said it has issued advisories to states and union territories to take measures to promote/adopt artificial recharge to ground water/rain water harvesting. Thirty States/UTs have made rain water harvesting mandatory by enacting laws or by formulating rules and regulations or by including provisions in building bye-laws or through suitable government orders, it added.