Ground water over exploited in Delhi, Haryana

New Delhi, Mar 20: Delhi is among the six states and Union Territories where exploitation of ground water was more than net annual availability, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.

Besides the national capital, Haryana , Punjab, Rajasthan and Union Territories of Daman and Diu and Puducherri were also losing their ground water at more than the sustainable rate, Minister of State for Water Resources Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav said in a written reply.

The annual replenishable ground water resources of the country had been assessed at 433 billion cubic metres and the net annual ground water availability was estimated at 399 billion cubic metres.

The assessment has been carried out jointly by the Central Ground water Board and the state Ground Water departments, he said.

Rivers: Feasibility reports for interlinking of rivers have been completed in 16 cases out of the 30 links proposed, and a detailed project report for Ken-Betwa link was being prepared, the Minister said in reply to another question.

He said the National Water Development Agency(NWDA) was on the job but the completion of the interlinking programme depended on consensus among states and their cooperation and agreement with the government of Nepal and Bhutan.

Mr Yadav said the government was serious about the river inter-linking programme.

UNI