PANJIM: Water Resources Minister Dayanand Mandrekar said that it was not compulsory for industrial units in Verna to do any water harvesting even though they were allowed to extract water from bore wells. He also said that there is basically no scarcity of ground water in Goa as it used only around 33% of its resource.
Replying to a question about whether there was any study on the effect on public wells, agricultural wells and other small ponds which are useful to the general public; and the steps taken by the government to regulate extraction of ground water, he replied that the department ensures that the withdrawals from all wells are restricted within the yield of the aquifers to avoid any effect on surrounding ground structures.
The development and utilization of ground water is regulated through Goa Ground Water Regulation Act, 2002, he said. Under the act, the whole State has been declared as a Scheduled Area and department is regulating the groundwater as per the Act.
“We have a system of registration of tankers and borewells,” Mandrekar told Taleigao MLA Jennifer Monserrate, adding that they had officers keeping a check on both north and south Goa.
Replying to a supplementary of Porvorim Rohan Kaunte, the minister said that there are more than 7000 wells in North Goa and over 2000 wells in South Goa including 200 commercial wells.
