There is something worrying about the water bodies in Delhi and Karnataka — more than 70 per cent of them are ‘not in use’. The data is according to India’s first census on water bodies released by the Ministry of Jal Shakti in April.

However, at an all-India level, things are quite good; of the total waterbodies numbering 24,24,540, around 83.7 per cent are still in use.

Among the larger States, Gujarat and Maharashtra have done quite well. More than 98 per cent of their water bodies are in use. Only 166 of Gujarat’s 54,069 water bodies are not in use. The census considers all natural or man-made units bounded on all sides with some or no masonry work used for storing water for irrigation or other purposes as water bodies.

A closer look

There are 27,013 water bodies in Karnataka — of which 789 are located in urban areas and none of them are in use. Of the remaining, only 5,874 are in use. The report noted that 3,204 water bodies in the State that are not in use have dried up, while 2,357 are filled with silt.

In Delhi, too, none of the urban water bodies are in use. Of all its 893 water bodies, 90 have dried up and 120 are polluted by industrial effluents.

The census also noted that more than 45 per cent of the water bodies in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab and Tamil Nadu are not in use “due to being dried up, construction, siltation, destroyed beyond repair, due to industrial effluents, salinity and some other reasons”. A whopping 50,197 water bodies are not in use in Tamil Nadu — 21,449 are dried up and 5,621 are filled with silt.

West Bengal tops the list of States with most number of water bodies with 7.47 lakh. Of them, 6.98 lakh are in use. Uttar Pradesh follows with 2.45 lakh water bodies. Interestingly, the State also has the highest number of ‘not in use’ water bodies in the country — 65,501. However, it is just 27 per cent of the State’s total water body population.

Ponds make up for the majority of water bodies in the country (59.5 per cent). “Tanks account for 15.7 per cent of the water bodies whereas the others are reservoirs, water conservation schemes/ check dams/ percolation tanks and lakes respectively,” the report noted.

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