Preserve ground water, shun exploitation

Hyderabad, June 9 (UNI) Former Director General of Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) P K Jena has urged the Scientists, Hydrologists and others to conduct more research and suggest ways to protect the ground water resources in the country.

Inaugurating the Two-day workshop on' launching the Asia Eco-Project on Decision Support Tool for Ground Water Management' at National Geophysical Research Institute(NGRI) here yesterday, he said concrete measures should be taken to protect the ground water resources.

''Two billion people in the world are living without proper water facilities and every day 6000 children die of water-borne diseases'', he said.

Urging the people to check the depletion of ground water, Mr Jena requested the industrial sector to use the surface water.

Accordintg to him, 75 per cent of the ground water was being utilised in the agricultural sector and only 0.8 per cent as drinking water. The unlimited use of pesticides resulted in the contamination of drinking water, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, the commissioner, Rural Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh said Green Revolution and technological improvement had precipitated the crisis with the farmers depending largely on the bore wells.

He faulted the implementation of the AP Water, land and Trees Act (AP WALTA) and said as many as 4300 villages in the state were notified as above the permitted level of water exploitation.

National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) director V P Dimri said, Indo-French Centre for Ground Water Research (IFCGR) had developed an easily applicable Decision Support Tool (DST), a groundwater improvement management facility with a software application.

Inorder to avail the DST, now operational in the experimental watershed of Maheshwaram, in real conditions for improving the ground water management, the Europeaid(EU) has funded a project 'Sustwater', to deliver DST to Department of Rural Development of Andhra Pradesh within two years.

UNI BR RL KP0911