28 July 2020.

Introduction:

National Green Tribunal has specifically banned the general permission for the withdrawal of groundwater, especially to the commercial entities without an environment impact assessment.

Highlights:

• National Green Tribunal has made guidelines for the commercial use of ground water more stringent.
• The permit should be for a specified quantity of water and monitored with digital flow meters.
• NGT has provided three- month time period to make water management plans for all critical, over exploited and semi-critical areas..
• In India, around 89% of ground water is extracted by the farmers and 5% by the industries.
• Rest of the water is used for domestic purposes.
• As per the NGT direction, industries must expect a complete overhaul in the manner in which the permits are issued for the extraction of groundwater for commercial activities. They must ensure that all the conditions are complied with.
•   Strict actions, including prosecution and blacklisting, must be taken against those who will fail the audit.
•   As per the new rules, the authorities are given three months to make water management plans for all the overexploited, semi-critical, and critical areas.
•   Around 8,00,000 companies are falling under such areas, which have been accounting for about one-third of all 3,881 groundwater assessment units in India.