HARYANA CONTINUES TO WITNESS ‘ALARMING’ DECLINE IN GROUNDWATER LEVEL

Chandigarh: In the wake of the decreasing water resources across the country, the union government continues to educate people to conserve water for their forthcoming generations. The situation in Haryana does not differ much from other states as groundwater is declining every passing day. Out of 141 blocks across the state, 86 are extremely exploited, which is a matter of serious concern. 12 blocks fall under critical category along with 14 blocks in semi critical conditions in terms of underground water level. Thus, only 14 blocks are in a safe zone which are likely to meet the same fate if the scenario remains unchanged. Thus, Haryana is staring at ground water level depletion at a rapid rate.

A string of districts falling on GT road in Haryana are witnessing the same fate. The list includes Sonipat, Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra along with Kaithal, Fatehabad and Yamunanagar. Most of the blocks in these have either dried up or are in an alarming situation which continues to increase the troubles of the state as well as central government.

Depleting water level can be mainly attributed to extensive paddy farming as it needs water at large scale. An acre of paddy is required to be flooded around 25 times and nearly 5000 litres of water are required for reaping one kilogram of paddy.

Regarding the issue, Satbir Singh Kadian, Chief engineer of the Irrigation department Haryana, said that the situation is getting worse undoubtedly which requires the attention of everyone so that the water resources can be preserved . In wake of this, Atal Bhujal scheme has been brought into existence to raise awareness among the people over the issue.

It is worth mentioning that Kaithal, Panipat, Gurugram, Kurukshetra, Faridabad are among those districts whose all water blocks are over exploited and worst affected as water level in these areas is falling by one metre ever year. In wake of ongoing alarming situation, the government took cognizance and has launched a pilot project to encourage farmers towards crop diversification. Besides, the government announced a subsidy to those farmers going for peas and maize cultivation and to some extent, the project proved fruitful as more farmers have prefered some other crops in place of paddy over 50000 acres of land during the last year.