Unaccounted for groundwater
Sixty-four per cent of Orissa's industrial units are using groundwater through bore wells. Going by government data, 145 of the 225 industrial units in the state are using groundwater, while the rest are sourcing water from reservoirs, canals and rivers. The total groundwater use by 145 industrial units amounts to 49.8 million litres per day. That is the official figure, but no one really knows how much groundwater these industries are actually guzzling. Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited, a steel manufacturer in the infamous Kalinganagar industrial area in Jajpur district, uses the maximum groundwater estimated at 21.4 million litre a day. In 2005, state finance minister P C Ghadai had written to the then chief secretary, Subash Pani, on the groundwater depletion in Kalinganagar due to large scale industrial use of groundwater. "Use of a huge quantity of groundwater by industries ... tolls upon the water table of the area. The water table in the industrial complex goes down day by day with the increased use of groundwater by the plants. Local residents are finding it difficult to have drinking water .... They (industrial units) should be requested not to use groundwater,' Ghadai said in his letter.