The deadline for borewell registration has been extended for the
third time to July 31. Earlier, the original deadline which was April 3
was extended to the end of the month before being pushed to the current
one. “We are aware that people need time to respond to new rules. And
water is a basic necessity, so due to humanitarian reasons, we have
decided to extend the deadline once more,” a BWSSB official told City
Express.

Although registrations for borewells were opened on
December 3 last year, the total number registered before the deadline
was extended was 12,029. Even the 27,707 borewells registered so far,
form less than 16 per cent of the estimated total of 1.75 lakhs.

Officials
said that they were hoping for a better response following the
extension. “We even have people going door to door to create awareness,”
said HM Ravindra, deputy chief engineer, BWSSB. However, despite the
board’s efforts, many owners of existing borewells do not seem to be
aware  that registration applies to them as well in accordance with the
Karnataka Ground Water (Regulation and Control of Development and
Management) Act 2011.

“We got our borewell dug 10 years ago. I
think the registration is only for new borewells,” said Chandrika M, who
lives in Malleswaram. Indira Ramamurthy, who has been using the
borewell at her farmhouse near Bannerghatta National Park for the past
eight years, simply said, “There were no rules that we had to register
them then.”

“With ground water reserves depleting at such an
alarming rate, we need to have a record of how many borewells there are
in Bangalore, and we can be sure of the number only if all of them are
registered,” said T Vankataraju, engineer in chief, BWSSB. Under section
32 (2) of the act, unregistered borewell users are liable to pay a fine
up to `5,000, serve a jail term that can be extended up to six months,
or both.

Senior scientist at Karnataka State Council for Science
and Technology AK Shiva Kumar said that borewell registration is the
first step of a bigger plan involving conservation of water resources.

“For
a city of this size, it is important to know the demand, supply and
source of water that is used for both domestic and commercial purposes.
We can determine the usage of Cauvery water as we have a record of that.
We want to do the same for borewells and tankers also.”

Shiva
Kumar said that the board then intends to advise borewell owners on
ground water recharge to ensure that the resource becomes more
sustainable. “We tell them that if they use up about 10 litres a day,
they have to ensure that they recharge 10 to 15 litres. Otherwise, their
borewells will dry up soon,” he added.

Registration forms can be
downloaded from the BWSSB website or obtained from the board’s
division/sub-division offices. The filled in forms have to be submitted
to the executive engineer of the division with a challan of `50 for
domestic use and `500 for commercial use payable to the BWSSB Canara
bank account.