SHILLONG: Wary of the adverse impact on the ground water level due to rampant drilling of borewells, Government is contemplating ways to put a blanket ban on it in the State.
“We are examining the matter in details and various provisions of the law are being looked into before imposing a blanket ban on drilling of borewells,” Deputy Chief Minister in-charge of PHE department Prof RC Laloo said here on Tuesday.
Prof Laloo informed that the State Government has already instructed the Deputy Commissioners of various districts to take a call on possible action that can be taken at their level to tackle the menace.
“The West Jaintia Hills district magistrate has already imposed a ban. We have imposed this ban to prevent the people of Jowai town from drilling borewells which would have a serious impact on the water-table and cause grave ecological imbalance,” Prof Laloo said.
The Deputy Chief Minister observed said that the situation would have been worse if not for the high amount of rainfall in the State.
“We are lucky to receive good rainfall which allows the underground water-table to recharge faster,” he said.
Meanwhile, senior government officials said that there will be problem in forcing the ban in several parts of the State, especially in Shillong city.
“The Government would have to take the traditional institutions into confidence before imposing the ban. We cannot surpass the traditional institutions especially on sensitive issues like this,” the senior government officials said adding that some Dorbar Shnong have on their own had imposed a ban on drilling of borewells. “We feel that the other Dorbar Shnong should also take similar steps to protect the underground water,” Prof Laloo said.
Drilling of deep tube wells by private individuals in their own premises is prevalent in almost all the localities of the city.
“The unplanned and non-scientific development of ground water resources, mostly driven by individual initiatives has led to an increasing stress on the available resources,” a senior government official said.
“The adverse impacts can be observed in the form of long-term decline of ground water levels and increased energy consumption for lifting water from progressively deeper levels,” the official said.
