Acquifers may help parched Gujarat

Sami dam on the tip of Dwarka and Shetrunji in Bhavnagar, are left with some surface water but that will cater only to the surrounding areas and last a little more than a fortnight. All other traditional sources of water are dry.

Water Supply Secretary and chairman of the Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board R K Tripathi told The Indian Express on Thursday that all the borewells were being augmented and water sources had been identified in advance. He said more than 1,400 acquifers, located by satellite imagery, had been kept untouched to meet the future needs and they were being tapped now.

The worst-affected areas in Saurashtra fall under the 300-km strip from Bhavnagar-to-Botad, North Amreli, Jasdan, Gondal-to-Jetpur, Rajkot, Kalawad and Dhrol-Jodiya. Here, tankers now traverse 20 km from five km a few days back while bores have been dug as deep as 1,200 feet to 1,500 feet. The extent of the crisis could be measured by the fact that against the designed capacity of 8 million gallons per day (MGD), the water supply department is pumping in 14 MGD for Rajkot city. Tripathi says, “We are running it on a hyper-critical safety level.” Over four MGD more is being developed by sources identified near Anandpura, Randarda and Lalpari. With Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel himself having admitted failure of the local administration in Rajkot, the State Government has recognised the need to improve distribution system everywhere in the affected areas. Sources said the municipal distribution network is bad in Rajkot, Jamnagar, Veraval and Porbander, and this was being observed. While Rajkot MunicipalCommissioner Raj Gopal was on Thursday transferred and replaced by J P Gupta, a Chief Engineer and a Superintending Engineer of the GWSSB have been put in charge of overseeing the supply systems, besides the local municipal engineers.

Top government sources also indicated that six municipal councillors of Rajkot, who were obstructing water distribution in Rajkot, had been warned against creating trouble and conveyed that the administration would not hesitate to invoke the PASA. In Jamnagar, which at present gets 8.3 to 8.5 MGD, borewells at Oond, Ranjitsagar and Vindhyarkhi dams are being augmented and Reliance will provide one MGD free of cost from its desalination plant. In Surendranagar they have managed to supply up to 100 litres per head per day but the town’s distribution network is capable to provide water only once in three to four days. A source in the water supply department said, “Internal municipal distribution is not strong enough in Surendranagar.” But 40 to 50 bores there are being augmented.

For North Gujarat, Tripathi claims, “The supply needs have been by and large catered to by various schemes initiated in time.” There, sources have been tapped to cover 144 more villages in Sami-Harij and Mukteshwar areas in North Gujarat, while other 200 villages in Vav-Tharad-Deodar will be taken care by wells near Banas river. Over 107 villages in Dhanera and desert areas will get water through wells near Sipu dam and 100 villages will be covered by Dharoi-Mehsana scheme. On Kutch, he says, “There is no problem.”