Potable water, groundwater wastage made into punishable offence; violators may get 5-year jail term, Rs1 lakh fine

The Centre has made wastage and misuse of potable water or groundwater into a punishable offence in India now. The Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) has issued a notification directing civic and municipal bodies across the country to evolve a compliance mechanism with adequate coercive measures for violations.

The notification issued by the CGWA under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act has come in pursuance to the directions passed by the National Green Tribunal on October 15, 2019 in the Rajendra Tyagi vs Union of India case, in which the petitioner had sought to make water wastage and misuse a punishable offence in the country.

The CGWA notification states that no person in the country shall waste or misuse potable water resources tapped from underground and violators will face imprisonment up to five years or fine which may extend to Rs 1 lakh, or with both, for non-compliance of a mechanism to be framed by local civic bodies to implement the order.

All local bodies dealing with water supply will specifically elaborate on what may constitute ‘wastage’ or ‘misuse’ — both in terms of domestic and commercial use — and enforce it through proper monitoring, the CGWA states.

“The civic bodies dealing with water supply network in states/UTs, whether called as Jal Board, Jal Nigam, Water Works Department, Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council, Development Authority, Panchayat or by any other name, shall ensure that there shall be no wastage or misuse of potable water tapped from underground and evolve a compliance mechanism, with coercive measures for violations”, the notification said.

The landmark development comes in the wake of the petitioners seeking the NGT’s intervention in curbing wastage of water through running faucets and deep bore wells, washing and cleaning of vehicles with fresh groundwater, swimming pools and leakages/thefts in water transmission and distribution.

“People will now have to be cautious and careful in wasting water through incessantly flowing overhead tanks, running faucets, extravagant lifestyles, pipeline-leakage and washing of cars,” Akash Vashishtha, the advocate who represented the petitioners before the NGT, was quoted as saying in news reports.

In case the failure or contravention continues, an additional fine can be slapped, which may extend to Rs 5000 for every day during which such failure or contravention continues after the conviction for the first such failure or contravention, under Section 15 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

“Section 15 of the Environment (Protection) Act deals with the penalty in case of contravention or if anyone fails to comply with any orders or directions issued under the act. We had sought from the NGT to ask the government to issue directions under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act so that any violation of contravention or directions thereof is punishable under Section 15,” Vashishtha said.

Meanwhile, the NGT has come down hard on the Centre over inadequate measures to prevent wastage and misuse of groundwater saying there has to be specific time bound action plans and monitoring.

According to a PTI news report, a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said the response filed both by the Ministry of Jal Shakti as well as Delhi Jal Board does not show clear enforceable policy to check such misuse and wastage.

The affidavit is vague and general. It is stated that letters have been written to the States. This step by itself can hardly be enough to discharge the public trust reposed in the Ministry of Jal Shakti. Apart from writing a letter, there has to be specific time bound action plans and monitoring which should include coercive measures for enforcement, the bench said.

The NGT said the affidavit filed by the DJB is wholly inadequate to address the problem.

“A very meagre amount is said to have been recovered in spite of the acknowledged problem of wastage of potable water. The environment law is not complied by recovery of some token amount from the violators”.

“Overriding environmental law principle of ‘Polluter Pays’ must be invoked by all the regulators to ensure that wastage of water is not profitable and cost of such wastage is recovered which is necessary for restoration of the environment without merely limiting to statutory changes which are no substitute to ‘Polluter Pays’ principle,” the bench said.