RTI confirms illegal water extraction

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RTI confirms illegal water extraction
as reported By Rashme Sehgal, ASIANAGE, 17 August, 2008, New Delhi

Aug. 17: An RTI filed by the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan (YJA) with the
Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) has highlighted that
quasi-government organisations are illegally extracting huge
quantities of water from the Yamuna flood plain.

The organisations include DMRC, which is building a massive
information technology park, an operation control centre, a Yamuna
bank station and staff quarters near the Yamuna. Similarly, Emaar-MGF
is building 1,168 residential flats comprising a built-up area of
2,01,280 sq metres for the Commonwealth Games next to the Akshardham
Temple.

Manoj Misra, convenor of YJA, believes that the Akshardham Temple
authorities are also illegally drawing water to feed its manmade lake
used for boating.

The CGWA forwarded the RTI application to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB),
which confirmed that no prior permission had been sought by either
DMRC and Emaar-MGF.

DJB confirmed that while it was supplying a small quantity of water
(4,000 kilo litres) to the Akshardham Temple, this amount was
obviously not enough to maintain the 100-acre complex, including its
lake.

"Obviously, they are illegally tapping into Yamuna acquifers, thereby
destroying Delhi's only remaining groundwater source," said Mr Misra.

Water activists, including Magsaysay awardee Rajendra Singh, have
calculated that water extractions from the Yamuna recharge zone are to
the tune of over one million gallons per day.

Mr Singh said, "The value of the water recharge zone of the Yamuna is
incalculable. A rough estimate has pegged the worth of the water at Rs
9,000 crores annually. If the government wants to jeopardise this
recharge zone, it will be the equivalent of strangulating the city."

Sources in DMRC deny doing anything illegitimate as they were given a
clearance to build way back in 1999. Water activists feel such a
clearance has no legal bearing as the Yamuna flood plain was notified
only in 2000.

Ravi Aggarwal of Toxic Link finds it surprising that quasi-government
organisations are the main violators. "It is shocking that Delhi's
iconic symbols, which include the Metro and the Commonwealth Games
Village, are being allowed to use up the capital's only remaining
water resource," he said. Vikram Soni, a physicist with the National
Physical Laboratory, complains this is not a new trend.

"The Bhure Lal report had highlighted how the Grand Hyatt Hotel at
Vasant Kunj was drawing six billion cubic meters of water per year
without any prior permission. This is being done for the last nine
years and the government has not taken any action."

Mr Soni believes the government needs to add teeth to its present law
which clearly bans all water extraction through the use of borewells.

"The present practice to build first and seek permissions later must
go," said Mr Soni. Delhi's new Master Plan is hoping to draw 200
million gallons from the Yamuna flood plain.

"The amount being extracted at present is already three times higher
than what was being replenished. Once the present aquifers are
destroyed, there will be no water left," warns water activist Diwan
Singh.

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