March 16: Assam irrigation minister Ardhendu Kumar Dey today introduced a bill in the Assembly to control and regulate use of groundwater.

The basic objective of the bill is to regulate and control use of groundwater in the state, which is depleting in many parts of Assam, mainly because of over exploitation.

Many areas in the city are facing a scarcity of drinking water because of fall in the groundwater table.

The bill, titled Assam Ground Water Control and Regulation Bill, 2012, will be taken up for discussion and passage when the Assembly session resumes on March 26.

The statement of objects and reasons of the bill stated that the over exploitation of groundwater resources because of increasing population and other development activities has led to depletion in the groundwater table in many parts of the state.

According to the government, these activities would create a severe shortage of drinking water as well as water for other uses in the near future.

Dispur is of the view that to ensure judicious use of groundwater resources in the state, the regulation and control of its use, apart from development and management of groundwater is very essential. The irrigation minister said the basic objective of the bill is to regulate and control the groundwater resources of the state.

For this purpose, the bill provides reasonable power to the government so as to identify such areas which may require to control and regulate ground water.

According to the minister, the bill has been introduced in the Assembly to address the emerging issues of concern regarding groundwater resources of the state by constituting a State Ground Water Authority.

Since the state government’s piped water scheme is yet to reach a large part of the city, the people living in those areas have to depend on deep tubewells for their water supply.

As a result, there has been fall in the groundwater table at certain pockets in the city.

The experts have also cautioned that indiscriminate extraction of groundwater may deplete the groundwater table in the future if there is deficit rainfall.

This problem may further aggravate since meteorologists have said there are indications that rainfall in Assam and other parts of the Northeast may decrease because of climatic changes, which will severely affect the natural process of recharge of groundwater.