Delhi Jal Board to start drive to seal illegal borewells

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is set to begin a fresh drive to seal borewells operating illegally in the city, with the water utility constituting 16 teams to check such operations across the city, officials aware of the matter said on Sunday.

The sealing teams comprise of a sub-divisional magistrate, and DJB’s executive engineer and assistant engineers from the area, along with revenue department officials. DJB CEO Cheshta Yadav, in an order dated January 24, said that the drive in each district will be supervised by the district magistrate and DJB superintendent engineer.

Each of Delhi’s 11 revenue districts will have 1-3 teams, a senior DJB official aware of the drive said, adding that the teams have been formed pursuant to an ongoing National Green Tribunal (NGT) case regarding the illegal extraction of ground water.

As per Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) regulations, the extraction of ground water through borewells or tubewells for domestic, commercial, agricultural, or industrial uses without prior permission is considered illegal.

A second DJB official said that once an illegal borewell is closed, DPCC also imposes environmental compensation on the violator. The penalty depends on various factors, including the capacity of the pump, its diameter, the duration of the operation of the illegal pump, the purpose for extraction of ground water, as well as whether the zone in which the extraction point falls is safe, semi-critical, or over-exploited.

The Central Groundwater Board (CGWB), in its Dynamic Groundwater Resources of India 2023 report released on December 1, 2023 , noted that around 41.49% of Delhi’s area of 1487.61 sqkm is considered “over-exploited” due to high levels of ground water extraction with only northwest Delhi considered “safe” among Delhi’s 11 revenue districts, with a stage of extraction of 65.96%. Four other districts which are overexploited — North Delhi, Northeast Delhi, Shahdara, and South Delhi. However, the total groundwater extraction in the city has dropped from 0.36 bcm (billion cubic metres) in 2022 to 0.34 bcm in 2023.

Environmental activist Diwan Singh, who led a campaign to rejuvenate the Yamuna and other water bodies in the Capital, said the ground water extraction should be regulated as per the ecological limit of an aquifer. “It is not sustainable to keep extracting ground water as deeper you go the probability of contamination of aquifers keeps rising. it is neither good for the health of the consumer nor for the ecology but people are forced to draw water in absence of adequate water supply. Water is a basic need and the water supply network needs to be extended to peripheries of the city,” he said.