Come June, industries must pay for using groundwater

Come June, industries must pay for using groundwater

News:

The Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) has introduced a water conservation fee (WCF) for the first in the recently notified Revised Guidelines for Ground Water Extraction.

Important Facts:

About Water Conservation Fee

1. Water conservation fee has to be paid by industries on groundwater extraction starting from June 2019.
2. Apart from industrial units, all business establishments, infrastructure projects such as residential and office buildings, hotels and hospitals have to pay WCF. Individual households that draw groundwater using a delivery pipe of a greater than 1” diameter would also need to pay a WCF
3. The WCF would vary with area, type of industry and quantum of water extraction. 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 groundwater extraction

Exemptions:

• Agricultural users,
• Users employing non-energised means to extract water,
• Individual households (using less than 1-inch diameter delivery pipe)
• Armed Forces Establishments during operational deployment or during mobilization in forward locations

Significance of Water Conservation fee:

1. High rates of WCF are expected to discourage setting up of new industries in over-exploited and critical areas as well as act as a deterrent to large scale ground water extraction by industries, especially in over-exploited and critical areas.
2. It would also discourage the growth of packaged drinking water units, particularly in over-exploited and critical areas.
3. The WCF would also compel industries to adopt measures relating to water use efficiency.

Other Key Features of Revised Guidelines:

1. It seeks to encourage the use of recycled and treated sewage water by industries
2. It has provision of action against polluting industries
3. It envisages mandatory requirement of digital flow meters, piezometers and digital water level recorders
4. Guidelines insist mandatory Water audits for industries extracting groundwater 500 m³/day or more in safe and semi-critical and 200 m³/day or more in critical and over-exploited assessment
5. It calls for roof top rain water harvesting except for specified industries
6. It envisages measures to be adopted to ensure prevention of groundwater contamination in premises of polluting industries/ projects.

Additional Information

Status of Groundwater Extraction in India:

According to the Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR),

1. India is the largest user of groundwater resources in the world.
2. Out of the total of 6,584 assessment units, 1,034 have been categorised as ‘over-exploited’, 253 as ‘critical’, 681 as ‘semi-critical’ and 4,520 as ‘safe’. The remaining 96 assessment units have been classified as ‘saline’
3. Ground water extraction in India is primarily for irrigation in agricultural activities, accounting for 90% of the annual ground water extraction. The remaining 10% of extraction (25 BCM) is for drinking & domestic as well as industrial uses.