Ground water table in Madurai, Chennai, Tiruchy depleting

Chennai:

The ground water table in Madurai, Chennai and Tiruchirappali is
depleting due to over exploitation of ground water and efforts are on
to recharge them, according to an expert.



Dr B Manikam, who is working on Water Resources and Climate Change
project of Indian Space Research Organisation, told Express o the
sidelines of a seminar ‘Water Resource and Conservation in India --
Issues and Challenges’ organised by Tamil nadu Dr Ambedkar University
that Indian Remote Sensing Satellite has mapped the ground water
potential of entire south India.



“We have identified where good water resources are there. We have also
identified the vulnerable areas like Madurai, Tiruchy and Chennai
where the ground water is depleting,” said Manikam, who is currently
teaching at Bangalore University.



He said the project is now working on how to recharge water through
sustainable water management programme.



The water will be recharged through check dams, valley fields and rain
water structures.



He also said the National remote Sensing Centre  is also planning a
digital database of surface water, ground water, rivers, lakes,
reservoirs. He said that ISRO is coordinating this project with
Ministry of Water Resources Department.



“Under this system, India will have a good water management system,” he said.



A National Remote Sensing Centre official said that while the version
4 of the digital database is ready, the Version 5 of digital database
on nation’s water resources will be launched in next couple of months.



Earlire, K Skandan, chairman of Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board
warned that due to increase in urbanisation, the problem to conserve
water would be more.



He also stressed on the need to adopt technologies that are
environment friendly.



He also highlighted the lack of planning in protecting the water
bodies. He said that land use management is more on theory than on
planning. Land use system should be strictly followed. “Those
mentioned for industries shoudl be used oly for industries and those
for residences should be used only for that purpose.



The thrust during the seminar was also on equitable distribution of water