WHILE TUBEWELLS have been named as one of the main culprits sucking Punjab’s groundwater dry, the state is silent on submersible pumps, used by industries, government and private establishments as well as individual households. Moreover, boring to install these pumps continues unabated despite strict rules, right under the nose of the authorities.

A submersible pump is a device used to lift groundwater. While a household would use one to two horsepower motors, public or private establishments, industries, leather tanneries have higher horsepower submersibles.

The issue of depleting groundwater is currently staring the state in the face. Over the past two decades, successive Punjab governments have been making several efforts to save this resource. These include — passing the Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act (2009), which sets a particular date for paddy sowing, and proposing to reduce 12 lakh hectares of area under the water-guzzling paddy crop under its new agriculture policy (2013).

While measures have been taken, no survey has been conducted to gauge the number of submersible pumps installed across Punjab. One was taken up in Ludhiana last year, but SAD leaders had objected to it saying that since most submersibles had been installed without taking permission, it would be an ‘anti-people’ step.

A senior officer in the Punjab canal and irrigation department said that as per rough estimates, the number of submersible pumps exceeds the number of agricultural tubewells in the state (around 15 lakh).

“There are around 55-60 lakh households in Punjab apart from thousands of industrial units, hospitals, hotels, government and private schools and other business establishments,” said a senior officer in the local bodies department, adding that as per their estimates, the number of submersible pumps in the state extracting groundwater throughout the year must be more than 20 lakh.

“We use to check hospitals, hotels, industrial units and found that even more than one submersible pump was installed in such establishments at a depth of 500-600 feet,” said a senior officer in the state public health department.

Kishore Bansal, superintendent engineer, water and sewer wing of the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation (JMC), told The Indian Express that a large number of submersible pumps have been installed by individual households and industries in Jalandhar apart from 500 water supply tubewells under JMC, which supplied water to all 80 wards under the corporation.

Karnesh Sharma, director, local bodies, Punjab, said that the department does not have any data regarding submersible pumps and whenever they need it, they source the same from respective corporations.

Agricultural department officials said that as per directions of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), boring cannot be done without getting a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the authorities in blocks where the water table is depleting at an alarming speed due to over-exploitation.

“We have never conducted a survey to count the number of submersibles, but as per the law, people now have to take permission from district administrative authorities before getting any personal boring done. There has been over-exploitation in almost all 10 blocks of Jalandhar district,” said engineer Bansal, adding that many people are not aware of the rules and flout repeated orders issued by district authorities.

DC Jalandhar Varinder Kumar Sharma said that ban order on fresh boring was issued under the certain provisions of the CGWB in over-exploited zones.

Devinder Sharma, an agriculture and food expert, said, “There is huge wastage of potable water in urban areas where thousands of people use showers and bathtubs which uses up 15 to 30 times more water, respectively, against taking a bath using a bucket. Shouldn’t people from urban areas also make some sacrifice when millions of people of the country are deprived of even drinking water?”

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Anju Agnihotri Chaba ... read more