National Green Tribunal seeks details of 5-star hotel's water consumption

The National Green Tribunal has directed a five-star hotel here to submit details of its water consumption after a plea alleged that the hotel was illegally extracting ground water and causing environmental degradation.

A bench headed by Justice U D Salvi directed Hotel Jaypee Vasant to inform the tribunal about the supply of water it received through tankers between August 2015 to January 2016 and also submit all bills in this regard.

“We direct the Respondent No 1 (Hotel Jaypee Vasant) to make a candid statement as to the supply of water through tankers between the period of August, 2015 to January, 2016 and place all such bills for the said period before us on the next date,” the bench said while posting the matter for next hearing on July 15.

During the hearing, Delhi Jal Board told the bench that the hotel has two sanctioned water lines and the average consumption for 26 days is 139 kilo litres that is 5.3 litres per day through one of the water lines. The consumption from the other water line is almost negligible, he said.

The counsel appearing for the hotel informed the bench that the water requirements are met either by Delhi Jal Board or water tankers. The tribunal had last year issued notices to three five-star hotels, Central Ground Water Authority, Delhi Jal Board, New Delhi Municipal Council, Central Pollution Control Board.

The directions came while hearing a plea filed by Delhi resident Shailesh Singh seeking directions to immediately stop withdrawal of ground water without permission. Singh had alleged that these five-star hotels were using “several lakh litres” of ground water and the sources of water are not visible in their premises.

The plea had alleged that according to Delhi Pollution Control Committee, one of the hotels was extracting 2,22,600 litres of water from supply and is having two bore-wells to extract ground water.Earlier, the tribunal had imposed a fine of Rs 7.5 lakh on one of the hotels after it found “unsatisfactory” rain water harvesting systems in their premises.