A day after Aland MLA B.R. Patil strongly opposed the Patala Gange project, the Akhil Bharatiya Janwadi Mahila Sangathan came up opposing the State government’s move, calling it “most unscientific and devastating.”
The project aimed at drilling the earth deep into the magma layer to meet drinking water requirements, proposed for several arid areas including Mr. Patil’s constituency, Aland in Kalaburagi district.
K. Neela, State vice-president of the Sanghatan, said at a media conference here on Wednesday that her organisation would not allow the government to implement the project in Aland taluk. The government must come up with alternative programmes that were not harmful to nature. Many environmentalists, experts in water conservation and underground water scientists had expressed their anxieties over the adverse impacts of the project on nature and human lives.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The project is not as simple as the government puts it. Drilling 2000-8000 ft. into the earth and lifting water to satisfy our drinking water needs would definitely disturb the natural balance. Drilling deep would undermine the earth’s layers, possibly leading to earthquakes,” she said. The project “is economically unfeasible as the water at the earth’s deep deposit is contaminated with toxic substances such as arsenic, and fluoride and the water thus lifted would not be safe for drinking purpose unless it is purified using costly methods.”
She alleged that WaterQuest Hydroresources Management India Pvt. Ltd, which was keen on bagging contract of the project, was misleading the government by capitalising on drinking water crisis in some parts of the State. “The government should initiate a public discourse on the pros and cons of the project and present the instances where such projects were successful without harming nature.”
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Ms. Neela blamed successive governments for not looking for conventional and natural methods of water conservation for meeting water requirements. She suggested taking up sustainable measures such as dredging lakes and tanks, building check-dams and afforestation across rural areas under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), apart from rainwater harvesting initiatives in both urban and rural areas.
“No government took much interest in the effective implementation of MGNREGA ever since it was enacted a decade ago. If works such as dredging tanks and building check-dams were extensively taken up under the scheme, unemployed people would have got work and the underground water table would have been recharged. Even today, it is the only way to meet our water requirements without harming nature,” she added.