Chennai Metropolitan Area Groundwater (Regulation) Act, 1987
No: 27 Dated: Jun, 17 1987
The Chennai Metropolitan Area Groundwater (Regulation) Act, 1987
Tamil Nadu Act 27 of 1987
An Act to regulate and control the extraction, use or transport of groundwater and to conserve groundwater in certain areas in the State of Tamil Nadu.
Whereas there is often acute scarcity of water due to consecutive failure of monsoon rains;
And Whereas the available water in the Poondi, Cholavaram and Red Hills reservoirs which are the main sources of supply of water to the Chennai City is inadequate to meet the requirements for drinking and other domestic purposes of the people in the Chennai City;
And Whereas the United Nations Mission which investigated the possibility of supplementing water supply to Chennai has recognised that a better economic answer might lie in the development of groundwater potential and had identified the Minjur, Duranallur-Panjetti and Tamaraipakkam-Kilanur Well fields in the Ami-Korteliyar basin, the Poondi, Korteliyar Flood Plains and Kannigaipper aquifers and also Poonamalle-Porur aquifer in Cooum-Adayar basin as having groundwater for extraction;
And Whereas the United Nations Development Programme which conducted pre-investment studies on improving water supply and sewerage systems of Chennai concurred with the estimation of the Geological Survey of India that ground water can be extracted from the twenty kilometre stretch of the coastal zone between South Chennai and Kovalam;
And Whereas the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board has reported that all other possibilities of augmenting water supply to the Chennai City have been exhausted and that it is necessary to regulate and control the extraction and use of ground water in any form and to conserve the same in the City of Chennai and the district of Chengalpattu and to regulate and control the transport of groundwater;
And Whereas based on the United Nations Development Programme studies, a scheme of artificial re-charge of the Ami-Korteliyar basin with excess flood water flowing into the sea is to be taken up by interlinking Ami and Korteliyar at two or more feasible points and also by constructing sufficient number of check dams at the appropriate places in the Korteliyar river course;
And Whereas such re-charge will enable optimum utilisation of groundwater and formation of a hydraulic barrier against sea water instrusion;
And Whereas the Government have, after careful examination of all aspects, decided that it is necessary in the public interest to regulate and control the extraction and use of groundwater in any form and to conserve the ground-water in the City of Chennai and certain revenue villages in the district of Chengalpattu and to regulate and control the transport of groundwater;
Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Tamil Nadu in the Thirty-eighth Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
1. Short title, extent and commencement. - (1)'This Act may be called the Chennai Metropolitan Area Groundwater (Regulation) Act, 1987.
(2) It extends to whole of City of Chennai and the revenue villages in the Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts specified in the Schedule.
(3) Sections 14 and 15 shall come into force on such date as the Government may, by notification, appoint and the rest of this Act shall come into force at once.
2. Definitions. - In this Act unless the context otherwise requires,-
(a) "Board" means the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board established under section 3 of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Act, 1978 (Tamil Nadu Act 28 of 1978);
(b) "competent authority" means the authority specified in section 8;
(c) "date of commencement of this Act" means the date of publication of this Act in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette;
(d) "domestic purposes" means the purposes of drinking, cooking, bathing, washing and flushing of toilet, and the expression "domestic" with all its grammatical and cognate expressions shall be construed accordingly.
Explanation. - In the case of any educational institution, hospital, nursing home or hostel, "domestic purposes" shall include the purposes for which water is used for carrying on the work pertaining to such educational institution, hospital, nursing home or hostel;
(e) "Government" means the State Government;
(f) "groundwater" means the water which exists below the surface of the ground;
(g) "scheduled area" means the whole of the City of Chennai and the villages notified in the Schedule;
(h) "sink" with all its grammatical variations and cognate expressions includes digging, drilling, boring or deepening;
(i) "well" means a well sunk for the purpose of searching or extracting groundwater and includes an open well, dug well, borewell, dug-cum-bore well, tube well, filter point or any contrivance which when installed, could be utilised for extracting groundwater.