Gurgaon sweats, water woes return to haunt residents
Residents of Fresco apartments fear that installation of new submersible pumps will lead to further depletion of groundwater in the area
The groundwater level in the area is on a freefall and going down every day. We have two licensed borewells which are used to pump water for over 2,500 residents. The society needs approximately six lakh litres of groundwater every day. NILESH TONDON, president RWA
The residents of Fresco apartments in Sector 50 have accused Unitech, the developer, of installing two submersible pumps in the area which they fear will lead to a further decline the depleting groundwater level in the city.
The Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA) alleged that despite several complaints to the developer and Huda (Haryana urban development authority), no action has been taken as yet.
“The groundwater level in the area is on a free-fall and going down every day. We have two licensed borewells, which are used to pump water for over 2,500 residents here. The condominium needs approximately six lakh litres of groundwater every day and this amounts to 22 crore litres every year. Canal water supply line should have been made available to Fresco in 2010 when the residents started living here. We understand that a substantial investment needs to be made to enable the canal water to reach the condominium and the developer has been skirting the issue in a bid to avoid making this expense,” Nilesh Tandon, president, RWA, said.
The Fresco condominium project was part of a joint venture between Unitech and Pioneer Land & Infrastructure.
“Fellow residents of South City 2 and Nirvana Country were more aware and alert and through sustained pressure on the builder and following up with the authorities concerned, they managed to get canal water. It soon became their primary source of water and groundwater extraction was relegated to being a secondary source of supply. Fresco is still completely dependent on groundwater extraction through two submersible pumps,” said Pradeep Arora, a Fresco resident.
A team from the HSPCB inspected the area on Friday.
“We have conducted an inspection of the area. We are waiting for the result of the samples that we took for examination,” Bhupender Singh, regional officer, HSPCB, said.