Face2News/Chandigarh
The Punjab Water Regulation and Development Authority (PWRDA) has notified the “Punjab Groundwater Extraction and Conservation Directions, 2023”.
The directions do not cover groundwater use for agriculture, drinking and domestic purposes. New directions also exempt government water supply schemes, military and central paramilitary establishments, urban local bodies, panchayati raj institutions, cantonment boards, improvement trusts, area development authorities and places of worship. Exemption has also been provided to all users who extract groundwater less than 300 cubic metres per month.
Disclosing this here today in a press communiqué, an Official spokesperson of the PWRDA said that all non-exempted users shall have to submit an application to the Authority for seeking permission to extract groundwater. The groundwater charges will start from February, 1 2023.
The groundwater charges have been fixed to reflect the extent of groundwater stress in each block of Punjab. The blocks of Punjab have been categorised in three zones based on the extent of annual groundwater extraction in comparison to annual groundwater recharge for fixing the groundwater charges.
All details regarding Punjab Groundwater Extraction and Conservation Directions are available at PWRDA website: https://pwrda.org.
The Directions encourage users to conserve water through conservation schemes to be submitted for approval of the Authority. The Authority will also fund public water conservation activities and projects to be implemented by various government departments.