KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – On the verge of announcing a shale gas development policy, the Indian government is facing a hurdle from the Environment Ministry, which claims that sufficient study has not been undertaken on aspects of water use in the exploitation of shale gas resources.

Raising a red flag on the shale gas policy, India’s Forest and Environment Ministry has pointed out that the policy should focus not only on the allocation of gas blocks, development of shale gas resources and attracting larger investment in the sector, but also on laying down guidelines on the use of water resources in fracking and discharge, the impact of drilling on groundwater in aquifers, and the discharge of wastewater.

It has also pointed to insufficient representation of water-resource management expertise in the multi-organisational team set up to frame the methodology for the development of shale gas. The team includes the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas's Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, ONGC Limited, Oil India Limited and GAIL India.

In a communication to the inter-Ministerial group, the Ministry stated that even the allocation of shale gas blocks through the proposed auction route, should inititally be determined on the basis of water resource availability and the use pattern thereof.

For example, the communication said that for starters, only those blocks where it was possible to use seawater for fracking should be put out to tender. Fresh water or groundwater for drilling should not be tapped - avoiding the risk of depleting water availability for farmland irrigation.

According to an official, laying down norms for usage of water in shale gas policy was also critical against the backdrop of the recently introduced National Water Framework Bill, which proposed a citizen’s guarantee to a minimum quantity of potable water and sought to address the fact that India, with 16% of world’s population, had just 4% of the globe's water resources.

In view of this, the Environment Ministry advocated that the Water Resources Ministry's Central Ground Water Board help in integrating India’s water resource reserves and usage patterns information systems, to better inform policy around the development of shale gas blocks and to lay down transparency norms regarding the use of chemicals in fracking fluid.

Moreover, to develop shale gas in a greener manner, the proposed policy should also look at offering incentives to resource developers to use new technologies that replace water with gas in fracking processes, the Ministry has pointed out.