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Severe water woes this summer
The residents of twin cities should brace up for severe water problems this summer with ground water levels plummeting to a new low. Borewells have dried up already or on the verge of drying up in several parts of the city. Public have no choice but to rely on water tankers or they should judiciously use the water supplied by GHMC
Hyderabad: The residents of twin cities should brace up for severe water problems this summer with ground water levels plummeting to a new low. Borewells have dried up already or on the verge of drying up in several parts of the city. Public have no choice but to rely on water tankers or they should judiciously use the water supplied by Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Water Board for at least three months until the onset of monsoon.
Situation is worse in some areas of twin cities like Marredpally, Sanjeevareddy Nagar, Bandlaguda, Asifnagar, Nampally and Charminar, according to officials of Ground Water Department (GWD). Water level fell to 23.31metres below ground level (mbgl) in Marredpally and 19.26 mbgl in Sanjeevareddy Nagar, while the average water level collected from 11 centres in January stood at 9.91 mbgl.
Ground water levels below the range of 20 mbgl can be considered as alarming, according to experts. If the present data is compared with data collected around the same time last year (January 2014), nearly 2.5 mbgl decline was observed. The average water level at that time was found to be 7.33 mbgl. Meanwhile, the situation is not rosy in city suburbs and Ranga Reddy district either.
The ground water level in Moinabad was found to be 26.56 mbgl, in Bantawaram mandal it was 24.02 mbgl. The water levels in Malkajgiri (23.61), Dharmasagar (22.40), Shabad (20.10) and Manchal (19.50 mbgl) are also nose-diving with each passing year. Like Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy district too witnessed a fall of nearly 4 mbgl of average water level when compared to last year. The reading in January 2014 was 9.4 mbgl, while the present reading stood at 13.30 mbgl.
Ramesh Kumar, deputy director, GWD (Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts) pointed out that water levels were depleting rapidly because every other house in the city was equipped with a borewell to draw water from the ground. With huge growth of population, amount of withdrawal of water from the ground has increased leaps and bounds over the years.
Further, rapid urbanisation resulted in many places in twin cities transforming into concrete jungles leaving no scope for recharge of water during the rainy season. With apartments, houses and big roads coming up everywhere, vacant and open spaces have become a thing of the past. In such a scenario, how can the rainwater seep into the ground during monsoon, he rued.
The GWD official suggested alternative options for improving the situation. Apartments and individual houses could go for roof top harvesting so that rain water gets directly deposited into the ground underneath thus improving water levels drastically. Unless a massive exercise for recharging of water is being taken up during the coming monsoon, water levels might plummet further, he warned.
By:Mahesh Avadhutha
