Developers told to use treated waste water for construction or face action

In order to curb the use of groundwater for construction and promote the use of treated waste water, the Haryana Water Resources Authority has warned developers against using potable water and groundwater and said environmental impact penalty will be imposed on them if they are found misusing water for construction activities.

The directions in this regard were issued in the second meeting of the authority held last week, in which senior officials of the town and country planning department, Haryana Pollution Control Board, Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) and around 50 developers and their representatives were present, said Keshni Anand Arora, chairman of Haryana Water Resources Authority on Tuesday.

“As per the licence conditions of the department of town and country planning, developers must use treated water for construction. However, it has been observed that they use ground water for construction and this practice must stop. Developers will have to start using treated water as it is easily available across the city. If developers continue to violate this norm, then the authority and other departments will prosecute them and impose environment penalty,” said Arora.

The Haryana Water Resources Authority has also asked the district town planner of Gururgam to ensure developers and contractors use treated waste water in construction activities or initiate action against them. “Groundwater needs to be saved and conserved. We are focusing on awareness and enforcement to ensure groundwater is not misused,” said Arora.

According to data available with the Haryana Water Resources Authority and the state irrigation department, groundwater table in around 200 villages is depleting by almost 1m every year and are water stressed. In the urban areas too, the ground water table has been depleting and it has reached 36.99m in Gururgam block due to over exploitation of water for construction and other activities.

Meanwhile, the GMDA said the city has adequate quantities of treated waste water but the uptake of water by developers has been significantly low. A senior GMDA official said that only 15% of treated water is being used in construction activities despite the fact that they have installed water hydrants at different locations on the city.

“The developers and contractors are not very keen on using treated water as it requires extra effort. The uptake of treated waste water may improve once the Haryana Water Resources Authority and other agencies start enforcement and take action against violators,” said the senior official on the condition of anonymity.

According to GMDA data, 109 developers have taken treated water from sewage treatment plants since January 2019. From Manesar CETP, the developers have taken 432 million litres of water, 156 million litres from Behrampur STP and 160 million litres have been drawn from Dhanwapur STP, said the authority officials.

“The total uptake of treated water has been around 748 million litre in the last three years but it is only 15% to 20% of what has been used for construction activities across the city as per our estimates,” said the GMDA official.

Meanwhile, Arora said they have decided to work in tandem with the pollution department, DTCP and other agencies to prevent the use of ground water for construction activities. “All the agencies have the power to prosecute and now, even we have the authority to take action,” she said adding that it was only recently that some developers have switched to the use of treated waste water.

Narender Yadav, president of Gurugram Home Developer Associations–a body of contractors and developers from Gurugram, said authorities must make treated waste water available in all areas where construction is taking place. “The pipelines need to be installed along Southern Peripheral Road, Dwarka expressway and also inside the city to make treated water easy accessible. Using tankers is not easy and it increases our expenses,” he said.