Jajpur: At a time when depleting groundwater level is a matter of grave concern, many industries in the district are allegedly using excess groundwater by tampering the flow meters.
Considering the seriousness of the situation, the Water Resources department has decided to introduce sensor-based flow meters, which will help it to check pilferage of groundwater.
Till March 31, 2020, the department has been supplying water to 108 towns and 217 industries from different sources like rivers, rivulets and groundwater with the approval of Water Allocation Committee (WAC).
According to reports, of the 217 industries in the district, 60 are using groundwater. As per a report of the Water Resources department, Odisha Integrated Power project, ITPC, NTPC (Darlipali), Sesa Sterlite Ltd and Vedant Alumina Ltd are drawing 140, 52.98, 55, 72 and 40.9 cusecs of water daily respectively from Hirakud reservoir. Similarly, JSW is using 117.71 cusec water from the Mahanadi a day.
The daily water consumption of IOCL, Paradip, Mahanadi barrage is 38.75 cusec. From Brahmani river, Odisha Thermal Power, Rungta Mines and NTPC (Talcher) are drawing 80, 28.94 and 55.49 cusecs of water respectively.
The per day water consumptions of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd and Tata Steel Ltd (Kalinganagar) are 66.16 and 74.32 cusecs of water respectively from Samal barrage and Kharasrota river.
On the other hand, Sukrungi Chromite mines and South Kaliapani Chromite Mines of OMC, Santuka Foods Private Ltd, Rungta Mines, Ramco Cement, OMC (Daitari), Kaliapani Chromite Mines, Balasore Alloys Ltd, and FACOR Charge Chrome plant are drawing groundwater.
As of now, there is no mechanism to keep a tab on the amount of groundwater drawn by a particular industry daily. Cashing in on it, few industrial houses are allegedly drawing water more than their permitted limits.
As a result, the groundwater level is depleting alarmingly. A report submitted by Odisha State Level Committee for Assessment of Ground Water Resource-2020 recently states that the groundwater level in Baliapal (Balasore), Garadapur (Kendrapara), Bhubaneswar and Bolagarh (Khurda), Korei (Jajpur) and Nuapada block is in semi-critical category.
It means, groundwater extraction rate in these areas is 70%-90%. Apart from extracting excess water, some industries are habitually not depositing water cess.
PNN