No check on wells being dug in Hyderabad and Secunderabad, water scarcity looms large

Hyderabad: The apathy of government departments — like the mandal revenue department that is supposed keep tabs on illegal borewell drilling, and the groundwater department, which issues licences to borewell rigging machines — has led to illegal borewells being dug up in the twin cities.

As per the Water, Air, Land and Trees Act (WALTA), borewells should not exceed 4.5-inch in diametre and 500-foot in depth for domestic use.

Such is the ignorance towards of implementation of the WALTA, that the mandal revenue offices do not even maintain the figures of the total number of borewells in their jurisdiction.

Ramesh Kumar, deputy director, groundwater department, Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy, says, “There is a need for co-ordinated efforts of all three departments — the implementing agency GHMC, revenue department and groundwater department — to deal with this issue.”

Commenting on the lack of monitoring system and violation of mandatory norms, a senior official of the Hyderabad Collectorate said, “Mandal revenue officers are the competent authority to look into the implementation of borewell issues. It is a mandatory norm to take consent before initiating drilling activity. As for the intervention of collectors and joint collectors, it can happen only on appeal from the complainant as the MRO is the competent authority according to the WALTA.”

Such is the ignorance towards of implementation of the WALTA, that the mandal revenue offices do not even maintain the figures of the total number of borewells in their jurisdiction.
Jasveen Jairath, a member of Save Our Urban Lakes, says, “Section 3 (2) of the WALTA enables the government to nominate non-officials to its authorities at different levels, for conservation of scarce natural resources. But this has been pending since a long time,”

Even the groundwater department is confined to registering the borewell rigging machines in the districts.