GUWAHATI: Traffic jams, accidents, broken lanes and disturbances in neighbourhoods – although many factors contribute to the aforesaid chaos of city life, a common contributor to these factors is the private water supply businesses that have mushroomed across Guwahati.
Over the decade, collecting groundwater through bore wells for commercial usage has developed as a successful business in the city. As the mighty Brahmaputra flows by the city and given that Guwahati is built atop areas that were once wetlands and water bodies, the ground water level is, or rather was, commendably good.
Despite such advantages, successive governments have failed to set up a complete water supply mechanism for the residents of Greater Guwahati. Although many projects are currently under way for years, the final goal of regular house-to-house water supply will continue to be a distant dream for the city in its entirety.
The topography of this unplanned metropolis is such that while some areas have good resource of ground water, others are severely deprived of the same. Especially during the dry seasons from December to March, many localities of the city cry out for lack of even the basic minimum amount of water. In this backdrop of events, many people have taken up the business of supplying water to the needy, of course commercially.
Needless to say with the government’s failure to supply this essential commodity, authorities are left with no other option but to permit the private water supply business. Yet, with over a decade of blooming as a successful business, the district administration and the other concerned departments have failed to regulate them.
In almost every traffic jam, especially in the peak hours, commuters are bound to come across ‘leaking’ water supply tankers adding to the chaos. These are often dated, slow moving vehicles that are unable to maintain the necessary speed of the traffic and hence adding to the congestion. At times these are also unregistered vehicles driven by unlicensed drivers leading to accidents.
Yet these manage to get a free pass, outside the ambit of all departments’ jurisdiction as they carry an essential commodity - water. And here the departments referred to include the city police, the District Transport Office, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation and the District Administration.
G Plus spoke to the officers-in-charge of a few police stations and found that there are no rules to regulate these water supply vehicles as they are reportedly permitted to function by the municipal corporation.
Apart from the vehicles, the damages and disturbances caused by the business itself adds to the city’s owes. Often, private households are found resorting to pumping water through tube well borings for sale. They employ number of workers, have vehicles, large supply pipes, pumps and generators round the clock which is often menacing to the locality. Residents of such localities also allege the vehicles of damaging the lanes due to the constant flow of water and commuting of heavy water loaded tankers.
G Plus tried to understand the necessary procedures to start such private businesses and was surprised to find that there is no proper licensing procedure to run a water supply business.
Manoranjan Bharali, superintending engineer of GMC Water Supply said, “There are four such establishments in Guwahati who are registered with us. They buy water from us and sell to customers. But we do not have any details of the rest functioning privately. These are small businesses without any regulations.”
Rupjyoti Talukdar, executive engineer of Guwahati Jal Board told G Plus, “We are unable to supply the necessary water to all parts the city. Hence we are dependent on these private players. They were restricted to operate during the initial days of the lockdown but people were left with no water altogether.”
“Although they are necessary, on the adverse side they are left unregulated and we have had people complaining about the quality and quantity of water. There are instances when water from dirty streams and water bodies have been pumped out and supplied to customers. But they are not under our jurisdiction. Also there is no means to check the actual quantity of water they provide,” he added.
“And there have been instances where the ground water levels of areas have depleted completely due to over pumping. These bore well owners first dig down to a few metres and when the water level is exhausted they pump from further below,” Talukdar informed.
A water supplier, who wishes to remain anonymous said, “I have been in this business for over five years now. We buy the water from a bore well owner at Rs. 50 per tanker of 750 litres and sell it from Rs. 200 onwards depending on the distance of the consumer’s house. The source owner earlier had just one bore well, but now he has added more. Also deeper pumping needs to be done from time to time as the water gets exhausted or dries up in winters.
No regulation on groundwater usage
The BJP’s ‘vision document’ of 2016, aimed at improving the groundwater level. The document mentioned, “Regulating bore-well drilling in urban areas till the water table attains the desired elevation.”
However, there is currently no mechanism in place to check for indiscriminate usage of underground water. Even though the state government had made it mandatory in 2018 for individuals to obtain permission from the Guwahati Jal Board to undertake deep tube well boring, it is currently not being implemented, informed authorities. This leads to rampant unregulated extraction of underground water in the city which, in turn, results in depletion of the groundwater level
In order to check exploitation of underground water, the Assam government had made it compulsory for commercial establishments, individuals, builders as well as flat owners to take permission from government authorities before extracting ground water.
Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had previously directed the Guwahati Development Department (GDD) to make the necessary amendments in the provisions of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) Act in order to make it mandatory for residents to take permission before undertaking deep tube well boring in the city.
G Plus spoke to Guwahati Jal Board - the authority responsible for regulating and giving permission for water boring. However, the Jal Board officials said that currently people do not take permission before undertaking boring work.
“There is a mandate to take permission from us for drilling of borewells but we have not enforced it sternly because the government has not been able to supply water to every household presently. When the water supply scheme is commissioned in a full-fledged manner, then we will start enforcing the rule,” said Rupjyoti Talukdar.
With years remaining for the various water supply projects to be fully commissioned the question arises whether the authorities will take the pain of at least regulating the private bore well water supply business that has evolved as a ‘necessary evil’ for Guwahatians.