Water mapping survey disappoints state planners

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Mar 2: The much awaited water mapping survey conducted to find  new sources of ground water in Jammu and Kashmir by Indian Space  Research Organisation (ISRO) has found that most of the water reserves are unsuitable for human consumption.

Sources said that the remote sensing technology survey carried out by the government with the help of ISRO has found high level of iron and fluoride contents  in the underground sources of water found in the state.

The report says that many of the newly found underground water channels have been found at inaccessible locations, which need sophisticated technology to extract, beyond the range of equipments what the engineers are using in the country at the moment. The report was recently submitted to the government by the space scientists.

Officials said that the survey has thrown open the fact that the people  will continue to face drinking water shortage for decades to come, with  more reliance on the surface water resources, already facing huge  pressure in the backdrop of rising pollution and over exploitation.  It is pertinent to mention here that facing the threat of water

scarcity due to global warming and other reasons, for the first time in six decades, the state government had decided to map its resources with the help of remote sensing satellite technology.

The situation is more alarming in Kashmir valley as despite having  abundance of glacier fed streams, which also recharge the under ground  channels, high level of iron has been found at most of the places.  Similarly in Jammu region the survey has either shown very poor quality  of hydro reserves or its total absence, which in turn has thrown a  tough challenge for the planners, as how to cope up with the increasing  demand of potable water in the coming decades.

Jammu & Kashmir is endowed with thousands of glacier fed rivers and streams, but in recent years due to the affect of global warming and ruthless exploitation of the water bodies, most of these are receding. State has so far used only 16 per cent of the available ground water and the Government wanted to conduct a comprehensive study  of its resources, but the survey had thrown new challenges for it.

Official sources said that in places like Lolab and Kupwara, hit by the  acute water scarcity, high mineral content has been found in newly found underground sources, which has cast its shadow over the plan to exploit these on massive scale.  Likewise in Jammu region, the ground water in Rajouri, Poonch, Doda, Kandi belt and southern districts is trapped at the places where it is very difficult to extract it at the moment.

“We are ourselves quite surprised by the findings as we were looking  forward to exploit the ground water to meet our future requirements. It  has been found that most of it is not suitable for humans or is trapped  in inaccessible areas”, said Minister for PHE Taj-Mohi-Ud-Din.  Minister claimed that the engineers are studying the findings minutely so to frame Water Security Plan for each district to meet the  challenges of future requirements- the move which has now become  inevitable.