Central Ground Water Authority

The Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA), which has constituted under Environmental Protection Act (1986) by the Honourable Supreme Court in December 1996. The Authority is empowered to regulate and control of withdrawal of ground water and to issue necessary regulatory directions. The authority can notify areas for ground water resources availability, conservation and protection. Also the authority can regulate construction of wells, bore wells, tube wells and resort to penal provisions continued in the Environment Protection Act, 1986.

Drilling agencies and mineral water companies have to register with the authority, paying a Registration fees. Special permission from the CGWA is necessary for any drilling activity in notified areas. So far 152 drilling agencies in the State and 2 ground water Abstraction structures in Trivandrum notified area have been registered with the Authority.

To create an awareness among the public about the depleting of ground water resources and its quality deterioration , programmes called "Mass awareness programme" was conducted at Kasaragod, Palghat, Ernakulam, Kannur and "Training on Roof top rainwater harvesting" was conducted at Kasaragod, Trivandrum, Calicut and Alleppey in the last two years. Brochers depicting different methods for rain water harvesting were prepared and distributed during the training camp. Both the mass awareness programme and training were attended by a large gathering including members of elected bodies, and NGO's. A good response from the public was obtained.

Work done in the Lakshadweep Islands

The Lakshadweep islands also fall under the jurisdiction of CGWB, Kerala Region. For the first time in the history of these islands, exploratory drilling was carried out under the supervision of Scientists of CGWB. The Board had completed detailed hydrogeological studies in nine out of the ten inhabited islands. Under exploratory drilling, 15 shallow tube wells spread over 5 sites were drilled in Kavaratti Island with depths varying from 6 m to 38 m. These boreholes were electrically logged to decipher the depth of interface and the quality of water. It was observed that the thickness of fresh water lens varies from 6 to 76 m in the island.

Rajiv Gandhi Technology Mission Programme

CGWB, KR took up the challenging task of microlevel source finding for water supply to problem villages under the Government of India's Technology Mission Programme. The work carried out by CGWB, KR in Palghat district received wide appreciation from the District Collector, Palghat and the Irrigation Minister, Govt. of Kerala. Nearly 1800 sites were examined and 1710 sites were cleared for drilling in 146 villages. A total number of 1457 bore wells were drilled. It is highly creditable that almost 85% of these bore wells were proved to be highly successful with very good yields. Nearly 57% of the drilled wells yielded upto 10,000 lph, 15% of the wells between 10,000 and 20,000 lph and 13% yielded above 40,000 lph.

Apart from the above said, the Regional office of CGWB in Kerala State is imparting technical guidelines for construction of ground water conservation structures and roof top rain water harvesting schemes.

Salient features of work done by CGWB, KR

The entire area of Kerala State was covered by systematic hydrogeological studies by March 1986. District ground water management studies is taken up every year in one or two districts. This helps to understand the ground water availability and its quality status.
Under the Indo-Swedish collaboration, a detailed ground water resource evaluation project (SIDA) was carried out in Kerala State. During the first SIDA assisted Ground Water project at Coimbatore (1975-79) the upper reaches of Bharathapuzha basin upto Chreuthuruthy were covered (2150 sq.km),mainly for water balance studies.The second SIDA project (1983-88) which covered 11 drainage basins from Vamanapuram in the south to Kadalundi in the north. The multi-disciplinary water balance study almost covered two-third of the state encompassing eleven major river basins. The voluminous data generated during the project was anlaysed and evaluation of ground water resources of different lithounits, development of methodology for evaluation of ground water recharge and discharge parameters were computed. Basin wise areas suitable for ground water development and the optimum design and the number of various ground water abstraction structures were determined. The project findings are useful and the report serve as a compendium on the ground water scenario of the state.
A total of 243 exploratory bore/tube wells have been drilled in the Kerala State (excluding wells kept for monitoring purpose) as on March 2002. So far 140 successful bore/tube wells including those drilled during SIDA project have been handed over to Kerala Water Authority and other user agencies.
For the conservation of ground water in the State so far, 8 sub-surface dams and 5 Artificial Recharge scheme have been constructed. 6 New schemes have been sanctioned during 2002. More than one crore rupees have been invested in those schemes. The follow up studies in the completed structure area, taken up by the officers by CGWB indicates that there is considerable rise in water level in the upstream side of sub-surface dyke.
Computation of Ground water resource estimation based on GEC-97 methodology was completed for the state, and based on stage of development and long term water level trend, the blocks are categorized into various categories like safe, semi-critical, critical and over exploited.
The sedimentary areas have been explored upto 600 m depth in the region between Katoor and Trikunnapuzha in Alleppey district and an area of about 2200 sq.km. has been proved ground water worthy.
The Exploratory wells drilled in the drought prone area of Attappady tribal belt of Palghat district have yielded in the range of 7 lps to 19 lps. This will mitigate the drinking water problem in that area.
Exploratory tube well at Mundaveli Ernakulam district encountered fresh water zone in the Tertiary sedimentary formation between 709 & 118 mbgl. This is an encouraging result of exploration in the saline aquifer area.
230 piezometers have been drilled under HP. A total of 106 DWLRs have been procured under the HP and 66 Nos have been installed on selected piezometers in 14 districts. 5 computers, 2 Laser Printers, 5 Inkjet Printers, 1 Plotter, 1 Digitizer, 1 Scanner, 2 External Modem, 1 C.D. Writer have been received under the HP and installed in the R.O.D.C. Computer package 'B' type has been received and all the Hardware and Softwares were installed by M/s. TATA Info Tech Ltd. E-mail facilities were made operational through 'SATYAM ONLINE SERVICES'. ISDN connection has been obtained through BSNL. All procurements under the HP have been completed.
CGWB, KR had completed detailed hydrogeological studies in the U.T of Lakshadweep Island. 15 tube wells have been drilled to find out the depth of interface and the quality of water.
Nearly 1800 sites were examined for exploration under Rajiv Gandhi Technology Mission Programme in Palghat district by CGWB, KR and 1710 sites were cleared for drilling. It is highly creditable that almost 85 % of these bore wells proved to be highly successful. The work carried out by CGWB, KR received vide appreciation from the District Collector, Palghat district and the Irrigation Minister, Govt. of Kerala.
Under the Central Ground Water Authority so far 152 drilling agencies and 2 ground water abstraction structures in Trivandrum notified area have been registered.In the last two years "Mass awareness programme on conservation of Ground water resource" was conducted at Kasaragod, Palghat, Ernakulam and Kannur and one day training on "Roof top rain water harvesting" was conducted at Kasaragod, Trivandrum, Calicut and Alleppey. Both were attended by a large gathering and a good response from the public was obtained.
The Regional office, CGWB is giving technical guidance to individuals non-governmental organisations for formulating Artificial Recharge schemes and Roof top rainwater harvesting.