Act restricting use of ground water soon

West Bengal government will be passing an enactment prohibiting indiscriminate drawing of ground water.

R Bandopadhya, principal secretary, state water resources department said his department had drafted an enactment and had god the President's nod as well. It would be placed in the next assembly session for approval.

D Prakash, regional director of Central Ground Water Board said that only 11 per cent of water was ground water. As part of the government's effort to conserve rain water, the state government was also planning to come up with legal structure for the new highrises in the city.

Bandopadhya was speaking at a seminar on rain water harvesting organised by Tata Pipes. Dibyendu Bose, chief""sales and marketing""tubes division of Tata Steel said that in Maharashtra there was a law that all newly built apartment buildings of 1,000 sq metre area must have rain water harvesting system.

He said out of 2.53 per cent fresh water available, only 0.76 per cent could be utilised.

The need to conserve water stemmed from the fact that distribution of rainfall across the country was uneven and varied from 100mm to 11,000mm. Around 85 per cent of rainfall was concentrated in 90 days.