Wastage of Groundwater by Water Packaging Companies in India - CGWA - Norms !!!!

Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) under the Ministry of Water Resources has fixed norms for withdrawal of ground water by industries using ground water as raw material including packaged water companies, as above.  Category of area as per ground       water resource assessment (2009) Ground water withdrawal limit Safe Withdrawal limited to 200% of ground water recharge Semi-critical     Withdrawal limited to 100% of ground water recharge Critical Withdrawal limited to 50% of ground water recharge Over-exploited and Notified Areas Permission is not granted.       CGWA has advised all the State Pollution Control Boards to set up monitoring mechanism to verify actual requirement and withdrawal of ground water including implementation of artificial recharge measures.  CGWA has also requested Bureau of Indian Standards to advise all concerned industries using ground water as their raw material to obtain “No Objection Certificate (NOC)” for ground water withdrawal from CGWA, which is mandatory. CGWA accords NOC to the firms for withdrawal of ground water, wherein industries are required to report about the source and number of ground water abstraction structures while applying for ‘NOC.  Submission of compliance report of conditions imposed in NOC is mandatory.