V K Upadhay, Director, UP Ground Water Department
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh is one the few states in India which has its own groundwater act. Our department is completely online. Industry can avail various information by visiting our website. Metering and pricing for water usage has been in place for industrial areas and mandatory recharge of water is there to obtain NOC. But to implement & monitor all these, we need to leverage new age technologies and we are working on that. We are also considering implementing the new guidelines by CGWA, the proposal is already submitted to the government for approval.
The one thing which is very important is capturing the usage data from the industries. We are imposing pricing and fixing the quantum of water industries are going to extract so metering is very important. The meters should not be based on electricity supply and they should be battery operated so that the meters shall operate without malfunctioning. Tamper proof is one of the most important aspects to be considered in the meters. The meter manufacturers shall ensure that the meters shall be made tamper proof and can work on batteries for years. The accuracy of the meters is also very important.
These advanced technologies are very important for groundwater regulation. Until and unless we have data, we can not frame good regulations.
