Pre-conditions to get Permission to dig a new Borewell

Do you know that, if you are drilling a new Borewell you need permission to drill one.

Under the Section 11 of the Karnataka Ground Water (Regulation and Control of Development and Management) Act, 2011 and Rules, 2012.  It is mandatory to apply for permit to dig new borewells.

Under section 12 and 13, it is mandatory to register the existing borewells and drilling agencies with the BWSSB, if you are in the BBMP jurisdiction area. You need to apply with the local government authority for the BDA jurisdiction region.

As per the notification issued by the Karnataka Groundwater Authority and signed by Member secretary, Department of Mines and Geology, all of Bangalore is declared “Notified” based on the groundwater availability and extraction. Hence, a permit is required to dig borewells.

All the users be it individual household, farmers, industries, commercial establishments, drilling agencies etc. who extract and use groundwater in Karnataka come under purview of the law

There are pre-conditions laid for individual household, when permission is sought for withdrawal of groundwater. They are:

• Only one tube-well is allowed to meet drinking and domestic purposes use only.
• No tube-well/bore-well will be constructed, if any working tube-well exists. If the existing tube-well is non-functional/to be replaced, then it should into a recharge well, if possible or possibly sealed and no water be pumped from it.
• The persons intending to construct a new tube-well will intimate the Authorizing officer/committee, 10 days in advance along with the drilling agency’s name and address.
• Maximum diameter of the tube-well should be restricted to 152 mm only and the capacity of the pump should not exceed 2HP.
• Concurrent with the construction of the tube-well, the owner shall undertake the installation of Rainwater harvesting in the premises.
• Details of the drilling like the rock formation encountered, the depth and diameter of the constructed bore-well, types of pipes used, yield of the bore-well and groundwater quality shall be kept for record and are to be provided at the time of inspection.
• Spacing of 500 mtrs should be maintained from the existing public source of drinking water as per section 3 of the Groundwater act of 1999

Therefore, if you are drilling a new Borewell or have an existing Borewell, remember these conditions set by the regulations.

All documents are referred from the below link

http://khanija.kar.ncode.in/SitePages/GroundWaterInfo.aspx

Safe Water Learning with Arghyam

27^th Sep 2016

Bangalore

What is the source of Fluoride in groundwater?

What is Dental Fluorosis? Why does it happen to Children only?

How to check if a person has Skeletal Fluorosis or not?

What are the ways to test for Fluoride in water?

How is Nutrition linked with Fluorosis?

What are ways to remove Fluoride from water?

Is Fluorosis reversal possible?

How can we prevent the adverse effects of Fluorosis?

How can eating Til Chikki, Moringa, Amla, Tamarind help in reducing the effects of Fluorosis?

What are the strategies to begin to work towards mitigation of Fluorosis?

And many more..

These were some of many questions that were answered by the safe water learning cards session.

Both me and my colleague Shreyas, were invited to conduct a session for the members of the Arghyam group in Bangalore on the 27^th September 2016. Arghyam supports many projects and initiates action research projects across the country that concerns groundwater and sanitation.  One such project is the Fluoride Knowledge and Action Network. 

So what are these Safe Water Learning Cards?

•    They are set of around 70 cards are designed to help learning on Safe water issues, with particular reference to Fluoride issue in this case.
•       There are four sets of cards – Basics, Debates, Strategies and Solutions
•       Each card is color tagged with the particular set.
•       There is basic content in each card to stimulate thinking and discussion.
•       They are meant to supplement existing modes of learning.

There were 15 members who had participated in the session. We had made arrangements such that each team had two members seated in a circular manner. The group had members who knew nothing, some had little awareness, some who have worked on Fluorosis. Given the lack of time, we selected combination of 30 cards with Basics, Solutions, Strategies, and Debates around issue of Fluorosis.

Learning card belonging to a specific topic were distributed to each team were given 4-5 minutes to read and passed onto the next team.  The participants were advised to make note of things they didn’t understand, important points which are interesting or topics they would like to learn more. Once the set was completed, the floor was open to discussion.  

Both me and Shreyas initiated and facilitated the discussion. Many questions we had asked were answered by the teams. Some questions were answered by the other teams and this is how the  cross learning and discussion took place.  We gave relevant examples to explain some doubts based on our recent field visits to Chikballapur and Raichur.

The same strategy for discussion was followed for the other sets. The group held that the Flash cards learning was a good experience and much simpler method to connect to the topic and have discussion. Many of them who knew nothing were aware of Fluorosis, its types, the permissible limits, the technologies for Fluoride removal, strategies and solutions to mitigate Fluorosis.

Kiran Kumar Sen

Biome Environmental Trust and

 Fluoride Knowledge and Action Network