Assam undertakes an ambitious water scheme to educate more than two lakh youngsters as Jal Doots

More than two lakh students will receive training to become Jal Doots through more than 7,000 Jal Shalas located throughout Assam as part of this scheme. The first Jal Shala was formally introduced on May 19, 2023, as part of the Jal Doot initiative, with the goal of serving as a volunteer community-level system that evaluates the effectiveness and impacts of water supply schemes and educates the local population about their sustainability.

The main goal of the Jal Doot Programme is to bring together students in Classes VIII through XII into a network of committed volunteers who will serve as change agents in their communities. This Jal Doot programme is exclusive to Assam, and the rest of the country can use it as a model. A leadership trait that will serve them well in the long term will be developed in youngsters as a result of initiatives like this one that motivate them to strive for community improvement.

In Assam, about 50% of the population is now protected by functional household tap connections (FHTCs), and the state intends to reach 100% coverage shortly. Every home will have access to safe drinking water as a result of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), which will significantly decrease the incidence of water-borne illnesses.

Topics including water conservation; water, sanitation and hygeine (WASH); water quality; water supply schemes; and community participation will be covered in the Jal Shala. After that, there will be community interactions to learn more about the state of piped water supply schemes. (India Today NE)

Tripura considers enacting legislation to control groundwater

According to a senior officer of the state water resource department who spoke to EastMojo, the Tripura government is thinking about passing laws to stop inappropriate exploitation of groundwater. Over the past five years, Agartala has had a fast urbanisation and increase in apartment development. According to sources, the city's sole supply of water is currently underground.

Urban dwellers build water pumps to often retrieve groundwater rather than relying on the controlled water supply provided by the state government. As individuals dig deeper than is permitted, certain water layers are being depleted.

The usage of privately owned water pumps will be governed by the proposed law. People will also be urged to use state-owned water connections to access water while being warned about the dangers of technological misuse. The new water management law is reportedly being prepared for introduction, and officials are debating which agencies will be required to take action to put it into effect. (EastMojo)

Rights body visits Bandhwari drain, asks Municipal Corporation of Gurugram to build drains around landfill

The Bandhwari landfill site on the Gurugram-Faridabad route was examined by a team from the Haryana Human Rights Commission (HHRC) on May 19, 2023, after complaints that leachate from the disposal site was contaminating the groundwater in adjacent communities. In order to stop leachate leakage into nearby water bodies and the protected Aravallis as soon as possible, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) officials have been instructed to finish building a drainage system around the landfill.

The HHRC team was led by its chairperson Deep Bhatia. He instructed MCG personnel to conduct sampling at a water body where leachate buildup is likely. MCG officials stated that as they develop new efforts for effective leachate management, they plan to consult with locals and environmentalists.

Gurugram produces 1,300 tonnes of garbage every day, the majority of which is transported to Bandhwari, while Faridabad dumps 1,000 tonnes of waste to the landfill each day. Leachate from the Bandhwari dump is already being taken out and discharged into sewage treatment facilities (STPs), according to MCG authorities.

In order to address the problem of excessive legacy garbage at Bandhwari, a state committee established by the National Green Tribunal determined on December 30, 2022 that starting on February 15, 2023, 70% of the fresh waste produced in Gurugram and 50% of the waste produced in Faridabad will not be put at the landfill. Later, the deadline was extended until March 31 and is now, according to authorities till September.

Environmentalists argued that the state government's 100 crore environmental compensation fund should be used to repair the region and ban further dumping at the landfill. The HHRC chairperson was notified by environmentalists that the lives of the roughly 50,000 residents of the five villages with contaminated groundwater are at danger. The human rights panel members were informed by a few local villagers who were also present at the landfill that they had a number of health problems and skin conditions. (Hindustan Times)

CPCB issues new guidelines for India’s stone crusher sector

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) recently released the environmental guidelines for stone crushing units considering that there is huge fugitive dust emission and severe air pollution brought on by the stone crushing industry. Under the execution of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), the Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (EPCA) prohibited the operation of stone crushing facilities, along with brick kilns and hot mix plants.

In its February 2022 report, 'Implementation Challenges of Environmental Guidelines in the Stone Crusher Industry', the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) emphasised the need to minimise air pollution from this industry. In this paper, they offered suggestions for lowering stone crusher emissions as well as information on the costs associated with putting those suggestions into action. In order to prevent air pollution from stone crushing plants, the CPCB guidelines describes strategies to assess source emissions, store materials, and adhere to other basic principles.

Strong winds have the tendency to cause stone crushing products to go airborne, which deteriorates the air quality in the area. The central board introduced measures for product storage in order to address this.

The general air pollution control procedures to be implemented in the stone crushing plants are also included in the CPCB recommendations. The CPCB guidelines covered vehicle transportation, wetting internal roads for dust suppression, water consumption, and legal raw material sources. 

The CPCB guidelines prohibits stone crushers from operating without permission to create or operate, since many of the stone crushers in the country are unlawful. The CPCB recommended that a district-level committee be formed, with the district magistrate or deputy commissioner as its chairperson, to carry out surprise inspections for the purpose of monitoring stone crushing plants. The CPCB guidelines also propose conducting a half-yearly health survey of employees working in stone crushing units. (Down to Earth)

Haryana Water Resources Authority has developed an integrated water strategy to bridge the gap between water demand and supply

Through conservation, Haryana hopes to close the approximately 49% difference between water supply and demand during the next two years. Farmers can submit applications online using a portal that has been setup. This website has over 50,000 registered farmers. For micro irrigation, a plan for on-farm water tanks has been designed. Work on 981 ponds is still ongoing under the Prime Minister's Amrit Sarovar Mission, which saw the completion of 1312 ponds. 

The Mera Pani-Meri Virasat programme was launched to encourage water conservation, agricultural diversity, and the use of direct seeded rice among farmers. In 2021, it was projected that Haryana's total water consumption would be 34,962.76 million cubic metres, whereas the total amount of water available from all sources will be 20,935.98 million cubic metres.

With the intention of using 50% treated water by 2025, the Haryana government had developed a Treated Waste Water Policy.

In order to close the gap between water demand and availability, the Haryana Water Resources Authority has created an integrated water strategy. Under this, block-level plans have been developed by each of the 22 district-level water resources planning committees. This is the first attempt of its kind in India, where the demand and supply gap for water has been quantified scientifically and the availability of surface and groundwater resources has been evaluated at the block level. (The Indian Express)

This is a roundup of important policy matters from May 16 - May 31, 2023.