Water supply crunch

The experts have said in very clear terms that excessive dependence on ground water can invite environmental hazards of various kinds. Experience shows that over-extraction of ground water can cause land subsidence and lead to creation of underground vacuums which make us all the more vulnerable to earthquake. Ground water is not being recharged at the same rate as it is depleted. In effect, the process of digging deeper and deeper will have to be continued endlessly. Clearly, the tubewell-based water supply has already been stretched to its limits.

The answer to the problem lies in having surface water treatment plants and going for conservation of rainwater for lean-time use. Only the first phase of the Sayedabad water treatment plant, which was conceived donkey years back, has been completed. Fund constraints are said to be the biggest inhibiting factor as far as completion of the second and third phases of the plant is concerned. But the question is when funds are available for so many other projects, why the same could not be arranged for an undertaking of such importance as the Sayedabad water plant? However, the silver-lining around the cloud is the prospect for Danida and Sida finances to complete the projects. The job is cut out for the government to try and expedite the process of fund-raising.

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WASA's policy is dangerously short-sighted. Ironically, it is the outcome of successive governments' failure to adopt a long term water extraction policy based on surface sources, but given the dreadful consequences of going deeper with tubewells we must abandon the course.

A time-bound plan to harness surface water that can obviate further tapping of ground water has to be adopted sooner than later.