LAHORE: Following directions of the Supreme Court, the Punjab government has worked out the groundwater extraction charges for the cement and other industries using excessive water against meager bills.

Since there is no state-owned entity to regulate and determine water tariff in Punjab, the government has worked out the charges on the model of the India’s department of water resources, river development and Ganga Rejuvenation (Central Groundwater Authority), as a similar authority in Punjab is yet to be established, Dawn has learnt.

“We have worked out the water charges as recommended by a high-level committee. The local governments will now finalise the water tariff for the industry in the light of the rates worked out by us,” Local Government and Community Development Department Secretary Noor Ul Amin Mengal told Dawn. “We have done this all in line with the directions of the respective court of law,” he added.

On July 17, 2018, it was brought to the court’s notice that two cement companies had not paid anything towards their groundwater utilisation. The court reportedly asked the respective local governments (LGs) to take action against these factories.

Following the court directions, the LGs proposed levy of charges at the monthly rate of Rs1 million (per cusec) on heavy industry. The cement factories submitted their objections to the levy with the respective authorities, terming the proposed rates illegal and arbitrary.

However, the department’s representative rejected the stance of the factories, stating that the groundwater could not be utilised without permission of the authorities concerned.

He also stated that the Local Government Act 2013 empowered the LGs to collect water conservancy charges from all owners or occupiers of houses or any other buildings, except educational institutes.

Finally, the department constituted a committee to review the charges already levied on the cement factories in compliance with the court directions on March 8, 2021.

The committee consulted and reviewed the available data on cement factories and after a a series of meetings worked out the charges.

The charges for various cement factories included Rs64, Rs70, Rs45 and Rs60 each (per cubic metre) for Maple Leaf Cement Factory (Mianwali), Gharibwal Cement Factory (Jhelum), Dandote Cement Factory (Jhelum), Flying Cement Factory (Khushab), Askari Cement Factory (Rawalpindi) and Fauji Cement Factory (Attock), respectively.

The committee also worked out the charges for other industries and infrastructure projects as well, keeping in view the area, groundwater situation (availability of water with depth etc). These include Rs2.21, Rs4.24, Rs6.36 and Rs10.6 on the use of 200 cubic metre per day, 200 to 1000cm, 1000 to 5000cm and 5000 and above (cubic metre per day), respectively, in category-1 (‘Safe Zone category). In the ‘Semi Critical Zone’ category, the charges (per cubic metre) are Rs4.24, Rs6.36, Rs10.6 and Rs16.96. For ‘Critical’ category, the charges would be Rs8.48, Rs12.72, Rs16.96 and Rs21.2 (200cm, 200cm to 1000cm, 1000cm to 5000cm and 5000 cubic metre per day and above.

The committee also recommended that since Pakistan was already on the list of ‘Fresh Water Scarce Countries’ and the global warming was further reducing water availability, a regulator should be appointed to regulate extraction from underground as well as surface water sources in the entire province.

It also recommended to make it binding for all the cement factories and other water consuming industry to get a licence from the regulator before the installation of any project (unit).

The committee further sought imposition of the limits for extracting water from ground or surface sources in every zone depending on the depletion of the fresh water in each zone.

“The factories should be bound to harvest rainwater as far as possible and only the deficit should be met from the groundwater source. Strict rules and bylaws should be framed and implemented to obtain groundwater balance,” the report submitted by the committee to local government department mentioned.

Following the committee’s recommendations, the department in its recent order has also directed the LGs to calculate charges for the water being used for industrial and commercial purposes as per the criteria and on the basis of level of criticality and actual extraction and recover it from the cement factories accordingly.

“In compliance with the Supreme Court’s orders, this order shall remain in effect till the establishment of Punjab Water Services Regulatory Authority under the Punjab Water Act 2019 and notification of rates for water extraction by the said authority,” said the order issued by the department.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2021