Agartala, April 23: Alarmed by the rapid depletion in water resources and the underground water table, the Tripura government has asked the state pollution control board to conduct a comprehensive survey of water resources in the state.

Apart from the depletion of the underground water table and drying up of rivers, the high iron content and presence of arsenic in the water at many places in West Tripura, South Tripura and Dhalai districts have led to the government’s decision.

All 10 major rivers of the state, including the Gomati, have been on the decline over the past few years because of heavy siltation and deforestation in catchment areas, posing a threat to the Gomati hydro-electric project and pipeline water supply in at least seven districts and sub-divisional towns.

Even Agartala, dependent on drinking water supply from the Hawrah river, is drying up because of largescale deforestation in its catchment area in the Barmura hill ranges.

“Our assignment is to ascertain the quality of water. We will also look into the state of static water sources like ponds, tanks and lakes, which are being adversely affected by construction of concrete embankments for stabilisation,” said Mihir Deb, chairman of the pollution control board.

He said the survey would commence within two months.

The comprehensive survey would determine the availability of water from all sources in the future. This will require the support of experts in water resource management within and outside the state.

“Our study will concentrate basically on the quality and state of static water sources unless the scope of the work is expanded. We have already explained this to the minister for environment,” said Deb.

He expressed concern over the growing tendency to construct pucca embankments around ponds, lakes and tanks.

“This seriously undermines the aquatic eco-system, as has been proved in the case of 500-year-old Kalyansagar lake behind Tripureshwari temple in Udaipur,” he said.

He added that the construction of pucca embankments have led to the death of a large number of old turtles and tortoises by blocking the space in which they hatch eggs.

The quality of water also degenerates as a result.

Deb said he had written to Ashish Mazumder, director in the school of water resource studies at Jadavpur University, Calcutta and professor emeritus Arunava Mazumder for their opinion.

“I received a reply three days ago and both the experts have spoken against constructing such embankments,” said Deb.