Subsoil water licensing body formed for industrial and commercial purposes, SHC told

A subsoil water licensing committee has been constituted to deal with all matters relating to subsoil water for industrial and commercial purposes on behalf of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), the Sindh High Court was told on Friday.

Filing comments on a petition against the alleged illegal extraction of subsoil water for commercial purposes, the KWSB incharge officer (anti-theft cell) submitted that the competent authority had constituted a committee, in pursuance of a Supreme Court order, in order to review, regulate and monitor the subsoil water business in the city.

The petitioners submitted that private respondents were extracting subsoil water in a huge quantity and supplying it through pipelines to their customers against a payment illegally and unlawfully without approval and any licence for such extraction.

They said the KWSB, instead of taking any action against the persons involved in illegal extraction of subsoil water and stealing water from its pipelines, had issued permission and NOCs for road-cutting for laying subsoil water pipelines and the supply of the illegally extracted water.

They alleged that private contractors were unlawfully extracting subsoil water in Ayub Goth, Sindh Cooperative Society, Sindhi Momin Society, Teen Hati, Haroonabad, SITE, Bara Board and Gulberg areas.

They submitted that illegal extraction of sub-soil water in a huge quantity has damaging effects on the overall environment, and sub-soil water also goes down considerably, resulting in damage to the natural water resources. They said it is a well-settled principle that natural resources like air, sea, forest and waters are like public trust and the same have to be protected from misuse and overexploitation.

The court was requested to declare that the extraction of sub-soil water for commercial purposes and its supply through water tankers and pipelines without obtaining any licence in terms of the Sub-Soil Water (Extraction and Consumption Regulation 2018 was unlawful, and to restrain the private contractors from extracting sub-soil water cancelling all NOCs and permission in this regard.

A division bench comprising Justice Aftab Ahmed Gorar and Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput, after taking the comments of the KWSB official on record, repeated notices to the private contractors, directing them to submit their comments at the next hearing.