Millennium City Gurugram May Soon Go Dry As Water Table Is Depleting Every Day

The Niti Ayaog report on water has made a startling revelation about the depleting water tables in various cities across the country. According to the report, by 2030, there could be a huge water crisis in India, if immediate actions are not taken to restore water bodies in the country. The situation is even worse in the new cities that are being built keeping in mind the needs of international visitors and top brass of the large corporate houses. The millennium city, Gurugram, is also reeling under the tremendous pressure caused by the lack of water in the city. The city's water table is depleting so quickly that it has already reached an alarmingly low level.

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In the last one decade or so, the city's water table has seen a stupendous decline of 82 per cent. If the pre-monsoon data collected by Gurugram¡¯s groundwater cells in May is taken into account, the water table fell to 36.21 metres which is almost double to the mark of 19.85 metres in 2006. The decline of 17 metres alone explains a lot about the problem that the city and its planners have been doing so far.

Pre-monsoon data collection happens every year in the month of June and last year¡¯s data had the water table at 32.32 metres which shows roughly a depletion of 4 metres in water table each year.

36 metres is average, at places, it¡¯s already over 50 metres

Sector-29 and areas around it which comprises even the hallowed MG Roads and the better part of new Gurgaon most of us relate to is most affected. The average groundwater level is over 50 metres deep which speaks of the alarming depletion of the water table and why the threat of a waterless Gurgaon is as real as it gets. At Chakkarpur village which is located just behind MG Road, the average water table is above 65 metres, which is worst in the district.

Other areas like Kherki Dhaula (38.8), Bandhwari (22), Wazirabad (47.1), Chakkarpur (65.5), Gurgaon village (39.5).

Warnings were issued in 2013

In 2013, the Centre Ground Water Board (CGWB) categorised as ¡®over-exploited¡¯ and in last five years, the pace of the decline has been 1.5-2 m every year. Several reports have said Gurugram is run out of the water in the next half a decade. In the last five years, the pace of the decline has been 1.5-2m every year, which is faster than Delhi.

Experts believe it¡¯s almost over for the city

Experts also believe that it¡¯s high time, the government take adequate steps, otherwise, it¡¯s already quite late for Gurugram. Sushmita Sengupta, deputy programme manager in the water team at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), said to TOI in May this year, ¡°Gurugram is heavily dependent on groundwater, but has no city-wide groundwater recharge plan. Compare this to every other state, which has a groundwater recharge plan that extends to individual buildings.¡±

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Some also raised the need to map groundwater for the Gurugram metropolitan area. ¡°Due to massive concretisation and urbanisation, the water table has fallen precipitously,¡± said Chetna Agarwal, an environmental analyst to TOI.

Rampant urbanisation ¨C the real culprit

The city has grown from leaps and bounds in last fifteen years. Half a decade back it had 58 sectors including old Gurgaon and now the number of sectors have increased to 115 and more surprisingly more and more people are moving in these sectors.

People need water and deficit of rain, poor water harvesting and damage to ecological water recharging mechanism of Aravallis due to massive construction has contributed to Gurgaon staring at a waterless future.

Shashwat Kumar of Development 2050, an NGO that works for water conservation, said, ¡°Gurugram¡¯s population has gone up exponentially in the last 10 years. Massive urbanisation and construction of real estate have led to this situation. The problem is there is no emphasis on reviving water bodies and other ways of groundwater recharge. If this continues, the city might run out of groundwater soon.¡±

The district hydrologist, however, pointed out that the city has been able to maintain a better average water level depth in the last five years. V S Lamba told TOI, ¡°Since 2011, we¡¯ve been supplying over 60-70 MGD (million gallons per day) of canal water to the city, which means water supply has improved and not many people rely on groundwater now. The decline could have been worse if the canal water supply had not been planned by the authorities. We also take strict action against illegal groundwater extraction.¡±