Alarm bells ring as groundwater levels plummet in Medak
The current scarcity of water, which could be seen across the district, is only going to get worse in the coming months with the groundwater table depleting fast.
Ban on digging of borewells for agriculture purposes
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Sangareddy: The current scarcity of water, which could be seen across the district, is only going to get worse in the coming months with the groundwater table depleting fast.
According to Venkateshwar Rao, Deputy Director of Groundwater department, Medak the groundwater levels have depleted to an alarming levels, with the water level falling to 21.53 metres by the end of November. By March 2016, it would further fall to 24.37 metres, 25.14 metres by April and would deplete up to 26.13 metres by May 2016.
He said this kind of situation had occurred in November 1998, when the levels had fallen to 13.32 metres and in 2004, the levels had dropped to 19.22 metres. However, the record has been broken this year.
Digging of borewells has already been temporarily prohibited in Jinnaram, Nyalkal, Kalher, Medak, Mulugu, Jagadevpur, Narsapur, Doultabad, Ramchandrapur, Kolcharam, Sangareddy and Tekmal mandals.
There are 337 villages in the district where usage of water is more, and enough water has not been retained in the ground. Therefore, digging borewells for agricultural purposes has been prohibited in these villages. To dig borewells in other places, permission from officials such as MRO’s is necessary in villages, while in municipalities, commissioner’s permission is mandatory.
The groundwater department officials felt that it wouldn’t be advisable to dig borewells in this situation, as it would only lead to failure and a lot of financial burden on the people digging borewells.
