Ghaziabad to plug summer water supply gap with new tube wells

With summer fast approaching and groundwater levels continuing to fall, the Ghaziabad municipal corporation is ramping up efforts to meet rising water demand by installing new infrastructure. The civic body has planned the addition of 15 tube wells and 34 submersible pumps in various localities to ease the pressure on the current supply system and address a shortfall of up to 50 million litres per day (MLD).

The corporation’s jurisdiction, which covers 100 residential wards, currently requires around 380MLD of drinking water but civic body is able to provide only 330–340 MLD at present, said officials.

“In view of summer, we have planned to dig 15 new tube wells and 34 heavy-duty submersible pumps to shorten the gap between demand and supply. A tube well can fetch about 1MLD of water. The areas where tube wells are being constructed are the ones where groundwater is depleting. We have also decided to rope in more water tankers to supply to different localities,” said KP Anand, general manager (waterworks), Ghaziabad municipal corporation.

Currently, the civic body has about 1,100 tube wells of varying capacities and 6,500 hand pumps installed. In addition, there are about 80 water tankers deployed to aid water distribution.

According to officials, the new tube wells will be installed in Nehru Nagar, Lajpat Nagar, Pratap Vihar, Vijay Nagar, Raj Nagar, Rajapur and Vasundhara.

A 2024 report titled National Compilation on Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India by the Central Ground Water Board identifies the Muradnagar block in Ghaziabad as being in a ‘semi-critical’ zone. The four other blocks—Ghaziabad city, Bhojpur, Rajapur and Loni—fall under ‘critical’ assessment units.

The report notes that the total annual groundwater recharge in Ghaziabad is around 42,822.13 hectare-metres (ham), while the annual extraction stands at approximately 47,805.78 ham. With an extraction rate of 124.04%, Ghaziabad has the highest over-exploitation rate in Uttar Pradesh.

The groundwater assessment by the UP groundwater department states that in Sahibabad, groundwater was available at 26.85 metres below ground level (mbgl) in post-monsoon period of 2018, and it fell to 34.93 mbgl in post-monsoon period of 2024.

Likewise, in Vijay Nagar, the level fell from 40.67 mbgl to 47.37 mbgl during the said period, and Lajpat Nagar saw a decline from 33.62mbgl to 40.95 mbgl during the period.

In Vaishali, the level declined from 33.45 mbgl to 37.9 mbgl during the period, while Rajapur saw a decline from 21.04 mbgl to 22.35 mbgl.

“The groundwater resources are depleting fast owing to rapid housing and industrial development. Besides, we also have many areas where water treatment plants have been set up for extraction, and these plants supply drinking water to residents at a price. Such activities are rampant, and there is no strict crackdown. So, the groundwater resources will continue to decline further,” said Sushil Raghav, a city-based environmentalist.