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Water data to be available soon

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 22. The Minister for Water Resources, T.M. Jacob, said in the Assembly on Thursday that reliable data on ground water availability in the State would be available in six months.

Replying to a debate on the Kerala Ground Water (Control and Regulation) Amendment Bill, the Minister said that satellite mapping of the ground water resources was being done for this with the assistance of the National Remote Sensing Agency.

This data would make it possible to predict water availability in each area accurately.

Conventional studies

Mr. Jacob said that conventional studies using the data available for the past 20 years had shown that about 3,221 million cubic metres of ground water, constituting 43 per cent of the ground water potential, was available for future exploitation. Out of the total ground water availability of 6,840 million cubic metres, about 6,229 million cubic metres were exploitable. Of this, 20,693 million cubic metres were in use including a draft of 1,097.36 million cubic metres for industrial purposes.

He said the monitoring of about 700 wells across the State had shown that there was ground water depletion in Chirayinkeezhu, Neyyattinkara, Thiruvananthapuram taluk, Karunagappally, Kottarakkara, Pathanapuram, Ambalappuzha, Chengannur, Devikulam, Peerumedu, Aluva, Kochi taluk, Kothamangalam, Kunnathunadu, Mukundapuram, Nilambur, Perinthalmanna, Ponnani, Mannarkad, Palakkad, Kozhikode taluk, Vadakara, Sultan Bathery and Hosdurg. The State now had state-of-the-art facilities for monitoring ground water levels.

Digging wells

The Minister said people would have to get registration before digging wells only in areas notified on the basis of ground water depletion. The regulations would not affect the digging of wells for household purposes.

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