Former Project Officer of the UNICEF and former Sanitary Engineering adviser to the Assam State's Municipal Administration department, Dr Binoy Kumar Das, today called for a halt to the practice of ground water exploitation in ordinary situations. Dr Das, who was speaking at the open session of the fourth annual general meeting of the Guwahati Centre of the Institution of Water and Waste Water, India, at the Gauri Sadan here this afternoon, said that with the rapid growth of built-up areas in the country's urban areas, ground water recharge points were also eliminated in a growing manner and the increased rate of ground water exploitation was hence leading to the depletion of the ground water table.