Commercial borewells in residential areas are guzzling precious ground water. As a result, the domestic borewells in surrounding houses and apartments are going dry, causing utter inconvenience to citizens. As per the Water Air Land and Trees (WALTA) Act, commercialisation of borewell water is not allowed in residential areas or city limits.

Citizens claim that despite lodging complaints, officials are not taking action against tanker operators who are selling precious groundwater. One such “commercial bore” in the midst of a residential locality near a private dairy farm in Dabeerpura in the old city,

Constituency development fund of MP and MLAs will be utilised to carry out the work In an attempt to meet the growing water requirement of Erode, the Corporation had decided to sink borewells in 76 places in the town.

Disclosing this at the Corporation council meeting held here on Thursday, Mayor Mallika Paramasivam said that funds received from the Constituency development fund of MP and MLAs would be used to carry out the work of sinking borewells.

The Southern India Engineering Manufacturers' Association has mooted a project to study energy efficiency of star-rated pumps in the agricultural sector.

Former president of the association Mahendra Ramdass said nearly 40 per cent energy saving can be achieved by replacing the old agricultural pumpsets with Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)- rated energy efficient pumpsets. In Tamil Nadu, there were some areas that still had 40-year-old pumps. These consumed a lot of energy.

Water woes for Bangaloreans will continue with fresh government data demonstrating that the current level of water supply in India's IT capital is almost four thousand million cubic metre short of the requirement, exposing 22 lakh people to water scarcity every year.

Every drop countsThe shortfall is in the prevailing situation. If City aquifers become barren due to over-exploitation, an additional 24 lakh will have a tough time getting their daily water supply from civic authorities, geologists have forewarned. The warning is based on water data collected by the Karnataka government's mines and geology department from 10 deep wells in Bangalore, between April and December 2011.

New Delhi: After a delay of some years, the controversial groundwater Bill is finally ready to be presented to the Delhi cabinet. Government sources say the draft is likely to be tabled in the monsoon session of the Delhi assembly and, if passed, will make groundwater a chargeable asset in the capital. The cess on extraction will be decided at a later stage when the final points of the Bill will be prepared before it is turned into law.

Work to construct rainwater harvesting structures in stormwater drain network to begin next month

Work on construction of rainwater harvesting structures in stormwater drains by the Chennai Corporation is expected to begin in May when the water table is the lowest in the city. The civic body had announced that over 5,000 rainwater harvesting structures would come up across the city.

Hampered by inadequate manpower, lack of statutory power

Amid widespread apprehensions over the quality of water supplied through an estimated 400 tanker lorries in the district, the Groundwater Department remains a mute spectator thanks to the lack of statutory authority and adequate manpower.

The State government has submitted a proposal to the Centre to release Rs 2,200 crore fund for drought management. But the Centre has not released any amount till date, said the former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa.

During his visit to Ammerahalli tank on Thursday, he said if the Centre releases the amount without any partiality, relief works will be started immediately in all the drought-hit districts of the State.

Srinagar, March 28: The findings of “Census 2011 - Housing and Household Amenities” have revealed that nearly 50 per cent of the households across the state lack toilet facilities while less than 35 per cent of them get treated water. Addressing a press conference here, Joint Chief Principal Census Officer CS Saproo, while presenting the findings of the census, said out of 20,15,088 households in the state, 9,83,791 did not have toilet facilities on their premises.