All Noida villages to have tap water by end of next year, says irrigation dept

Noida: The irrigation department has recently surveyed and found that over 90 villages in Noida do not have tap water connection and residents are forced to use groundwater for their daily needs.

The district administration is in the process of building storage tanks and getting tap water connection to these villages within this year. Of the 90 villages surveyed, 12 were transferred to the authorities (Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway), while 78 remained with the district administration.

During the survey conducted over the past two months, it was found that government or community land was available in 68 villages.

“We are now at different stages of identifying land in the villages, preparing a detailed project report, constructing water tankers and providing tap water connections. Most of the households have submersible pumps and extract much more water than required. With tap water connection, we will be able to reduce water wastage substantially and will be able to prevent the groundwater levels from receding further,” said Suhas LY, district magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar.

A detailed project report (DPR) has been made for providing tap water connection in each of these villages and is being sent for approval to the State Water Sanitation Mission (SWSM) under the Namami Gange Programme. Officials said that the DPR for 48 villages have already been sent and 37 of these have also been approved.

“We have started constructing water storage tankers and laying tap water pipelines in some of the villages. We have also started testing the water flow in five villages where 3,500 tap water connections have been given so far. The aim is to ensure that the entire work for these 48 villages is complete by the end of this year and all villages in the district have tap water before the end of next year,” said Bharat Bhushan, executive engineer, irrigation department.

The five villages where testing is going on are Nagla Chamru, Chakrasenpur, Khangora, Ballabhnagar and Milakh Karimabad. Most of these villages without tap water connection are in Dadri block. The total cost of the project in the 48 villages for which DPR has been prepared is about ₹115 crore. It will benefit 18,000 households with a total population of around 113,000 people, sources said.

The 30 villages for which DPR is yet to be prepared include 12,000 households with a population of around 70,000.

According to the Central Ground Water Authority, Gautam Budh Nagar is among the most ‘water-stressed’ districts in the state. A report by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on the state of water in Uttar Pradesh in 2021 also mentions the district being highly over-exploited. In the last five years, the average pre-monsoon groundwater level in Noida increased from 9.95 metres in 2016 to 25.28 metres in 2020 — a change of 154%. For Greater Noida, the average groundwater level dropped from 6.66 metres to 12.75 metres during the same period — a change of 91.41%.

Officials said that having tap water connection is a step towards checking the rapidly falling groundwater table in the district.