AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Thursday directed the state government to frame appropriate guidelines and regulation, and implementation by local authorities to regulate groundwater extraction and supply of drinking water.
The court held access to clean water is fundamental right and authorities are dutybound for equitable supply of water.
Acting on a PIL complaining about indiscriminate groundwater extraction in Surat’s industrial areas of Udhana-Pandesara for commercial purposes by supplying water to industries in tankers, the bench of Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice V D Nanavati ordered the government to frame regulations on basis of directions given by the Centre in its notification of September 24, 2020. If this is done, the court said that it would be “a stepping stone to control the illegal and indiscriminate groundwater extraction and supply of drinking water and resultantly the exploitation of groundwater resources would be curbed to large extent”.
The court said that the issue is not restricted to Surat industrial estate, but it is a common concern throughout the state of Gujarat. It said that the issue is of primary importance and some guidelines are required to be issued in absence of any legal framework to regulate the activity. It observed, “There being no direct mechanism available to control the groundwater extraction, the exploitation of resources remains uncontrolled.” The court was against extraction of groundwater, which is the State’s property, for the purpose of commercial exploitation.
Asserting that clean water is every citizen’s fundamental right and state authorities are under constitutional obligation to maintain natural resources, the court said that the task is how water is to be made available to one and all. For this, the question is how to curb the exploitation of such natural resources and to ensure effective mechanism for equal and just distribution of such resources.
