Patiala gains after 14 years,situation grim in rest of state

According to reports,the city that had been witnessing a fall in its water level since 1996 has benefited the most from last year’s floods,as Sangrur,Mansa and Fatehgarh Sahib,which too had faced the flood fury,have not shown any improvement.

The deluge reportedly had a positive impact only at a few places because of the varied lithology in Punjab. “Rainwater has not seeped in at places that have rocky or clay lithology. Most importantly,the timely arrival of rain did good to the state. Maximum withdrawal is during June and July,but as it rained on the transplantation day itself,the stress on groundwater was reduced,” said a source.

Asserting that the law against early sowing of paddy had also shown its effect last year,he added: “The ordinance came in 2008 and the Act in 2009. Therefore,the maximum benefit was being expected in 2010.”

The level has gone down in major cities of Punjab,including Ludhiana,Amritsar,Jalandhar and Bathinda.

According to the report of Punjab’s Water Resources Investigation Division for last year,in Patiala,areas in Bhunerheri and Kakrala village in Samana have seen a rise of about two metres,while Rajpura has gained too,except in Khadauli village that saw a fall of one metre. A few areas in Chamkaur Sahib,Anandpur Sahib and Nurpur Bedi of Ropar district have seen an increase in the water level by over a metre.

In flood-hit Mansa,the biggest gainer was Joga village,where the level has gone up by about 5 metres,while rest of the district witnessed depletion. In Sangrur,the scene was grim in almost all blocks,while in Fatehgarh Sahib,it has gone up only at a few places (in Sirhind and Bassi Pathana). There has been a marginal improvement in Ferozepur,where Fazilka has recorded a rise of half a metre. Ludhiana,too,has seen a fall.

In Majha region,Amritsar continued to keep its over-exploited tag,while the level has more or less been same at most places in Gurdaspur,except at a couple of points in Dina Nagar that has recorded about two-metre increase.

There has been a fall of about one metre in Amritsar district,where the demand has always been more. The last year’s report of the Central Groundwater Board had said out of the 137 blocks assessed in Punjab,103 fell under over-exploited category,five under critical and four under semi-critical category. Only 25 were declared safe. In Amritsar,all 16 blocks analysed were found to be over-exploited,followed by Sangrur,Ludhiana and Patiala,with 12,ten and eight such blocks,respectively.

In Doaba,water level has gone up at a few places in Hoshiarpur,such as Mahilpur where the rise is of about two metres. But the major loser is Kapurthala,where the fall is between half metre and 3.5 metre — the maximum being in Paazian village. Jalandhar,too,has seen a drop at most places.