70 tube wells in Ropar village dry up, illegal mining to blame

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Tribune press service

Arun Sharma

Scream, June 9

More than 70 tube wells in the village of Heerpur here have dried up. Locals blamed it on illegal mining in the Sutlej river bed adjoining their land, saying the deep digging is causing the water level to drop.

It is not the first village to have cited illegal mining as the reason for the drying up of tube wells. Earlier, residents of Sangatpur, Saidpur and Bhanua villages protested against illegal mining.

We know that groundwater levels drop even otherwise. However, in the case of our villages, experts have told us that illegal mining deep in the river bed is one of the main reasons for the current situation, said Bakhtwar Singh, a 75-year-old farmer from village. An Agriculture Department geologist, Jaspal Singh, told The Tribune that when a riverbed is dug, water recharge starts from the same depth leading to depletion of the groundwater level even in adjacent areas. He said the deep digging of the river bed also pierced the aquifer (underground layer of permeable rock containing water) due to which the water overflowed onto the ground level, especially at the sites. mining. The groundwater in these places flows with the water from the river, causing further depletion. River water entering through the perforated aquifer also pollutes groundwater, he said.

Following a protest from villagers, Deputy Commissioner Amandeep Kaur set up a committee to report on the matter.

The committee, headed by Anandpur Sahib SDM Manisha Rana, has Mining Department XEN, Anandpur Sahib DSP, Anandpur Sahib Block Geologist, Groundwater Cell Hydrologist, Ropar, XEN (Headworks), Anandpur Sahib tehsildar and the Nurpur Bedi naib tehsildar as its members.

Department of Agriculture officials have alerted authorities to the issue in the past, saying such complaints increased manifold after mining was noticed in rivers, particularly in the Sutlej, during the last decade.

Although groundwater was once between 5 and 8 feet in villages on the banks of rivers, farmers are now digging new boreholes to a depth of over 200 feet.

Dilbagh Singh from Heerpur village said tube wells in their villages have been going dry for two years.

After my tubewell dried up, I was forced to install a new tubewell by spending Rs 4.24 lakh, he said.

#illegal mining #cries

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