Water level plummets in dist; down to 17-19 metres

Ludhiana: At the time when concerns are being raised over depleting water level in the country, the rate of falling water level in Punjab can be judged from the fact that submersibles are required to pump water after the level goes down to 10 meters.

According to data available with the experts at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), in 1998 area where submersibles were use was around 30% while it has increased to around 75% by 2015.

In Ludhiana, the water level goes down annually by 50 cm on an average and according to the average water table for 2015, the level had gone down to 17-19 meters. This was stated by Dr Rajan Aggarwal, head, department of soil and water engineering, and senior research engineer at PAU. Aggarwal is also principal investigator of the all-India coordinated research project on irrigation water management.

Talking about the other districts, he said the average annual dip in the water level is even higher in Barnala, Moga, Patiala and Sangrur where it has been recorded on an average around 1 meter annually.

However, Ludhiana is still better than Barnala, Jalandhar, Fatehgarh Sahib and Moga where the water level as per the average water table has gone down to 20 meters and below while at Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Nawashahr, Tarn Taran, Amritsar and Bathinda the water level is around 15 meters.

Aggarwal added that the data is based on on analysis of water table data done in the past starting from 1988 to 2015 by different agencies and has been derived as an average. He said the situation might be different in some parts of the state as the water level is not same even in one particular district.

He also advised the residents, especially the farmers, to stop water wastage and adopt techniques like drip irrigation , laser leveling techniques and some others and save water for the coming generations by adopting rain water harvesting for ground water recharge, using abundant for water recharge and renovation of village ponds .

Meanwhile, on Latur-like situation in the state Aggarwal said, "The situation in Punjab is different as Latur in Maharashtra and nearby areas are rain-fed areas and in Punjab we use ground water. In Punjab 98 per cent area is irrigated, out of which around 70 per cent is irrigated by ground water, 28 per cent by canal water and the rest is rain fed However the situation is bad and people need to save water."



Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.