The Fact News Service
Chandigarh, April 19
Deeply concerned over the fact that Punjab is staring at annihilation of its civilization on account of fast depleting ground water, top farm scientists who are the alumni of PAU have setup a group called “Punjab Water Conservation Initiative Group”. Padam Sri Dr. Rattan Lal, World Food Prize laureate and Distinguished professor at Ohio State University Columbus, USA and Padam Sri Dr. Gurdev Singh Khush, another World Food Prize laureate and Emeritus Professor, University of California Davis USA, are amongst the Punjab origin top agricultural scientists who have joined hands with Punjab based farm scientists to work for conservation of depleting ground water in Punjab. Kahan Singh Pannu, IAS (Retd.), former Secretary, Deptt. of Agriculture and Deptt. of Water resources shal
act as convener of the group. Padam Bhushan Dr. S.S. Johal, former Chairman, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Padam Shri Dr B.S. Dhillon, former Vice Chancellor, PAU Ludhiana, Dr. Jai Rup Singh former Vice Chancellor GNDU, Amritsar and Central University Bathinda ,Dr. S.S. Chahal, former Vice Chancellor Maharana Partap University of Agriculture, Udaipur and Dr. J.S. Samra former CEO, National Rainfed Area Authority, Govt. of India are among the members of the Group.
The Group has observed with pain that 132 blocks out of 150 in Punjab have fallen in dark zone, out of which 49 blocks are witnessing water extraction of more than 200% of its annual recharge and woefully all 10 blocks of District Sangrur and Malerkotla are extracting water which is more than 300% of its recharge. Based on scientific findings in the report “Dynamic ground water Resource of River Basins 2022, “ prepared by Central Ground Water Board, Govt. of India, it has been clearly established that good quality ground water in all three aquifers of Punjab upto the depth of 1000 feet shall entirely finish in next 15 years leading to disaster of unprecedented proportions, noted the group.
The Group, which also consist of Dr. J.S. Mahal former Director Extention, Dr. N.S. Bains former Director Research, Dr. D.S. Cheena former Dean College of Agriculture, Dr. R.S. Sidhu former Dean College of Basic Sciences and Dr. K.S. Thind former Dean College of Agriculture, PAU Ludhiana, has decided to take various measures involving Government, farmers, Research institutions and other stake holders to ameliorate the situation of Ground water depletion. The measures to be taken include, creating awareness, Policy engagement, advocacy, agric diversification and other measures to improve efficiency of water use by domestic, Agriculture and industrial users, amongst others.
The Group has felt that imminent water crisis in Punjab can be tackled through concerted efforts and strategic interventions, for which group has exhorted the stake holder to join hands for safeguarding ecological heritage and agricultural prosperity for future generations.
