(1) In this Ordinance, unless the context otherwise requires.-
(a) “artificial recharge to ground water” means the process by which ground water reservoir is augmented at a rate exceeding that under natural condition of replenishment.
(b) “Authority” means The State Ground Water Authority established in accordance with section 3 of this Ordinance.
(c) “availability of water” means total estimated water available in a particular area during an assessment period and calculated with the standard prescribed procedures.
(d) “business/ commercial” means users using ground water for sale, supply through tankers as earning business or as a raw material like packaged drinking & soft drinking water, distilleries, breweries, construction works and cooling system in industrial & commercial complexes, etc.
(e) “drinking water” in relation to the use of water, means consumption or use of water by human population for drinking and for other domestic purposes and includes consumption of water for similar relevant purposes for domestic animals.
Explanation: For the purposes of this clause, the expression “domestic purposes” shall include consumption or use of water for cooking, bathing, washing, cleansing and other day to day activities.
(f) “Government” means the Government of Mizoram.
(g) “ground water” means the water which exists below the ground surface of the zone of saturation and can be extracted through wells or any other means or emerges as springs and base flows in streams and rivers.
(h) “Ground Water Authority” means an Authority prescribed or established under this Ordinance.
(i) “Notified Area” means the area notified under section 10 of the Ordinance.
(j) “Ordinance” means ‘The Mizoram Ground Water (Control and Regulation) Ordinance, 2023’.
(k) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Ordinance.
(l) “rainwater harvesting” is the technique of collection and storage of rain water at surface or in subsurface aquifer.
(m) “sink” with all its grammatical variations and cognate expression in relation to a well includes any digging, drilling or boring of new well or deepening carried out to the existing wells.
(n) “spring” location where ground water naturally emerges from the Earth’s subsurface in a defined flow and in an amount large enough to form a pool or stream-like flow.
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(o) “Technical Officers” means hydrogeologists in the office of Ground Water Resources Assessment Cell of PHE Department, not below the rank of Assistant Hydrogeologist.
(p) “user of ground water” means the person or persons an institution including a Company or an Establishment, whether Government or non-government who or which extract or use or sell ground water for any purpose including domestic use made either on a personal or community basis.
(q) “well” means a well sunk for the search or extraction of ground water and includes open dug well, drilled well, point collector well, infiltration gallery, recharge well or any of their combinations or variations.
(2) Words and expressions used herein but not defined herein shall have the same meaning assigned to them in any other relevant Act.
CHAPTER-II CONSTITUTION OF THE MIZORAM GROUND WATER AUTHORITY