ANNOUNCEMENTS
Gurgaon is grappling with the conundrum of managing floods on one hand and dealing with the swinging fall in groundwater levels on the other. With the city burgeoning, demand pressure on its water resources is increasing unsustainably. The groundwater levels in the Tehsil have fallen below 220 meters in some areas. Water quality parameters suggest the water in north-western parts of the tehsil are not suitable for drinking or irrigation. The dissolved solids and electrical conductivity levels exceed the BIS standards of 2000 and 3000 respectively. TDS measures as high as 2800 mg/l and EC 4000 mS/cm was recorded in the North-western part of the Tehsil. Current demand supply gap in the water supply for the city was calculated to be a whopping 224.5 Million Gallons per day. In the wake of increasing water demand, the city has to find measures to reduce the demand-supply gap in the water supply. Supply-side measures like reducing loss, increasing reuse of wastewater and rainwater harvesting are already being considered by the water supplying authorities. The following study summarises the current groundwater situation and the extent of overexploitation of the resource. The urgent need for sustainably reducing the demand-supply gap in water supply without depleting the easily exploitable groundwater resource is highlighted through this study.
KEYWORDS: groundwater depletion, groundwater quality, Gurgaon, Water demand, Water supply.
