New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) Delhi's groundwater resources are heavily strained, with the overall extraction rate at 99.13 per cent, categorised as "critical", while the situation in Bengaluru is even more alarming with the overall groundwater extraction rate at 150.84 per cent, the Jal Shakti ministry said on Monday.

Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Raj Bhushan Choudhary, said that while desalination technology using reject heat from nuclear reactors is operational at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, it is not widely applicable.

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Instead, the reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology is deemed suitable for treating groundwater, the minister said.

The government has also assessed groundwater dynamics in urban areas like Delhi and Bengaluru, but similar data for Mumbai is unavailable due to insufficient data collection.

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Delhi's groundwater resources are heavily strained, with the overall extraction rate at 99.13 per cent, which is categorised as "critical", Choudhary informed.

Areas like Vasant Vihar, Mehrauli, and Saket are in dire straits, recording extraction levels of 153.13 per cent, 117.9 per cent, and 116.31 per cent, respectively.

Vasant Vihar topped the chart for overextraction, drawing more than 1.6 times the available resource, he said.

The critical zones in Delhi include central and south regions like Karol Bagh (114.47 per cent), Chanakyapuri (131.45 per cent), and Dwarka (99.83 per cent).

Shahdara and south-west districts also reported concerning levels, with overextraction exacerbating water stress.

The situation in Bengaluru is even more alarming, with the overall groundwater extraction rate at 150.84 per cent, the minister said.

Yelahanka emerged as the most stressed region, extracting over 225 per cent of its available groundwater resource. Other urban areas, including Bangalore North, East, and South, recorded overextraction rates exceeding 200 per cent.

Bangalore City itself reported an extraction rate of 217.4 per cent.

The minister also emphasised that advanced desalination and groundwater recharge technologies could play a role in water conservation, but their scalability is constrained by infrastructure and feasibility challenges.

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