Context: With around one-sixth of assessed ground water units in the country facing over-exploitation, the Centre Govt has issued revised guidelines for groundwater use. The new guidelines prohibits new industry and mining projects in over-exploited zones and makes it mandatory for existing industries, commercial units and big housing societies to take no objection certificate’ (NOC). 

Key Guidelines

• It introduced the concept of Water Conservation Fee (WCF). It is designed to progressively increase from safe to over-exploited areas and from low to high water consuming industries as well as with increasing quantum of ground water extraction.
• Encouraging use of recycled and treated sewage water by industries.
• Provision of action against polluting industries.
• Mandatory requirement of digital flow meters, piezometers and digital water level recorders.
• Mandatory water audit by industries abstracting groundwater 500 m3/day or more in safe and semi-critical and 200 m3/day or more in critical and over-exploited assessment units.
• Mandatory roof top rain water harvesting except for specified industries.
• Measures to be adopted to ensure prevention of groundwater contamination in premises of polluting industries/ projects.
• Though these guidelines will have pan-India applicability, states may be at liberty to suggest additional conditions/criteria based on the local hydro-geological situations. 
• For the first time, the Centre has also proposed levying environmental compensation on industries, infrastructure units and mining projects for extracting groundwater for commercial use without a valid NOC. The minimum environment compensation will not be less than Rs 1 lakh, and will be charged for the quantum of groundwater extracted illegally.
• Violation of NOC conditions will attract a penalty from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. Industries and mining projects will also have to pay an ‘environmental compensation charge’, fixed by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), for not obtaining NOCs under the new conditions.
• Residential societies will have to install sewage treatment plants (STPs) for getting NOCs if their groundwater requirement is more than 20 m3 /day. Under the condition, water from STPs will be utilised for toilet flushing, car washing, gardening, etc.
• NOCs will, however, be granted to the housing societies only in such cases where the local government agency is unable to supply the requisite amount of water. The NOC will be valid for a period of five years or till such time local government water supply is provided to the area.

Challenges

• “Though the guidelines will come into force with immediate effect, the projects and societies will be given adequate time for getting NOCs. Entire process of grant of NOC will be online,” said an official. The NOC will be taken from the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) or the state/UT groundwater authorities concerned.
• Currently, 1,186 out of 6,881 assessment units in the country are ‘over-exploited’ – it means those units where groundwater extraction exceeded the annually replenishable groundwater recharge. 
• Majority of the over-exploited units are concentrated in parts of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, western UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu.

Exemption from requirement of NOC has been given to –

• Under the revised guidelines, the agriculture sector will be exempted from obtaining NOC for groundwater extraction. 
• Besides, individual domestic consumers in both rural and urban areas for drinking water and domestic uses, rural drinking water supply schemes, Armed Forces establishments, Central Armed Police Forces establishments and micro and small enterprises, drawing groundwater less than 10 cum/day, will also be exempted from taking NOC.
• All industries/mining/ infrastructure projects drawing ground water in ‘safe’, ‘semi-critical’ and ‘critical’ assessment units will have to pay groundwater abstraction charges based on the quantum of groundwater extraction. Out of the total 6,881 assessment units, 1186 units (17%) have been categorised as ‘over-exploited’, 313 units (5%) as ‘critical’, 972 as ‘semi-critical’ units (14%) and 4310 units (63%) as ‘safe’.

Government water supply agencies

• Ground water extraction in India primarily for irrigation in agricultural activities, accounts for 90% of the annual groundwater extraction and remaining 10% of extraction is for drinking & domestic as well as industrial uses. India is the largest user of groundwater in the world.
• Out of the total of 6584 assessment units, 1034 have been categorized as ‘Over-exploited’ 253 as ‘Critical’, 681 as ‘Semi-Critical’ and 4520 as ‘Safe’ . The remaining 96 assessment units have been classified as ‘Saline’ due to non-availability of fresh groundwater due to salinity problem.

Challenges by the given Exemption beneficiaries

• “The revised guideline will not stop further depletion of groundwater … uninterrupted use of groundwater in ‘critical’ and ‘semi-critical’ areas after paying ‘abstraction and restoration’ charges will defeat the purpose of conservation,” said environmentalist Vikrant Tongad.
• Tongad, one of the petitioners in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) over the issue of groundwater depletion, even questioned the categorisation of units as ‘over-exploited’ or ‘safe’ or ‘critical’ through assessment of administrative blocks. 
• He said, “The assessment must be aquifer-wise so that the authorities will have a correct picture of groundwater availability in particular areas.”
• Although the new rules exempt farmers from the need for obtaining an NOC from CGWA, it highlights a key factor that leads to excessive groundwater extraction in the agriculture sector—free electricity supply to farmers.

Key Facts

• As per official data, 90% of groundwater is used for irrigation and 10% by domestic and industrial consumers.
• Government had launched a scheme to conserve groundwater in seven states facing acute water shortage and urged farmers to opt for less water-intensive crops. 
• Named Atal Jal Yojana, the scheme was targeted at Maharashtra, Haryana, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat where the ground water situation is very worrisome.