Groundwater Development in Nagaland Emerging

Kohima, Sept 12 : The Department of Geology & Mining organised an awareness programme on Artificial Recharge to Groundwater through Rainwater Harvesting in Dimapur recently. GC Saha, Regional Director, Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) MOWR, Government of India, NER, Guwahati was the chief guest at the inaugural function.  

E Kikon, Additional Director, department of Geology and Mining, in his keynote address said that the development of groundwater in Nagaland is fast emerging owing to the pressing demand for water in all sectors. He, however, added that the availability of groundwater is restricted to geo-structures in hilly terrains due to low retention and storage capacity. Kikon said while there is a substantial amount of surface water during monsoon, it is never utilised nor infiltrated into the ground as most of the water is drained away as run-off.

He underscored the need to supplement equal amount of groundwater withdrawn from underground reservoirs through artificial means or man made techniques from the surplus rain water and avoid excessive development. He said that the stage of groundwater development in the State is 3 per cent which is negligible as groundwater development in the State is not uniform so as to be contented with the current percentage.

Kikon added that in and around Dimapur, major requirement of water resources is met from groundwater but due to urbanization, the avenue for natural infiltration to groundwater has been reduced which is evident by drying up of ring wells and shallow bore wells in some areas resulting in scarcity of water.

GC Saha in his address said that, though there is scope for further development in Nagaland, urged the department to take into account cases of over-exploitation that have occurred in many areas in the country. He urged the department to avoid over exploitation in a particular area.  He said that in some districts in the country the stage of development is so high that it has resulted in harmful effects. He said that in such areas water level is declining and quality of water is deteriorating.

Saha also underscored the role of the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) which was declared a permanent body of the Government of India in 2000. He said that with the Nagaland government’s recent declaration of the Geology & Mining as the nodal department, the department is headed in the right direction. He said the department must work in close coordination with other related departments for proper implementation of projects and tackle water shortage problems in the state.

He said that in States like Nagaland, the Deputy Commissioner has been declared the Nodal Officer and that state would also need to regulate the ground water extraction with the help of judiciary to safeguard the random extraction by individual. He informed that CGWB Secretariat has now chalked out a strategy to issue notifications- to check over-exploitation of existing wells and for regulation under which declared or notified areas would be demarcated where no organization/ individual can extract water unless permitted by the board. He suggested that the government open an office as a branch of the CGWB in the state to oversee projects and related matters. He also urged the schemes should be community based.

Director Geology and Mining, HK Chishi in his welcome address said that the department is organizing the seminar to impart technical input to the officers from various departments for effective and result oriented implementation of artificial recharge to ground water based on scientific methods.  

Later a technical session was held in which P Kalita, Scientists- D, CGWA, R Kelio, Executive Engineer, Dr S Singh, CGWA Scientist attended as resource persons.