Despite heat wave, no significant fall in groundwater level in Krishna district

May 28, 2013 11:50 am | Updated November 27, 2021 06:56 pm IST - MACHILIPATNAM

Puddles dug up by farmers in Machilipatnam. Photo: T. Appala Naidu

Puddles dug up by farmers in Machilipatnam. Photo: T. Appala Naidu

Despite unpredictable climatic conditions being experienced during the current summer, there is no significant fall in groundwater levels in Krishna district.

Going by the Ground Water Department statistics, current average groundwater level availability is 8.35 metres by April-end compared to 10.5 metres in April, 2012. “In the wake of blistering heat wave, the groundwater levels are generally expected to fall down to deepest level. “Thanks to last year’s delayed monsoon which resulted in bountiful groundwater levels and saw us through the prevailing climatic conditions,” Groundwater Department Deputy Director A. Varaprasada Rao has told The Hindu .

Though South West monsoon was delayed by almost three weeks last year compared to the normal time any year, it brought several spells of drizzling rain helping percolation of water to increase groundwater table. “Right from distribution of rainfall due to monsoon, poor downpour ratio and the number of days of rainfall were found to be major factors to record balanced groundwater levels across Krishna district,” says Mr. Varaprasada Rao.

The availability of groundwater from surface of the earth is between 8 metres and10 metres in the stretch from Pamarru, Vuyyuru close to Vijayawada city, where it is six metres. In the Krishna delta region’s rural pockets, the summer affect on groundwater source is said to be negligible due to recharge capacity of the groundwater on a regular basis and now it can be tapped within a depth of two to five metres.

Delta works

Delta modernisation works provided no irrigation facility in two Rabi seasons consecutively, but farmers met their irrigation needs for 63,000 hectares of fields through wells, for which groundwater is the only source in summer. If everything goes well as predicted by weathermen and the god would be good to the farmers, onset of South West monsoon is likely to bring the first spell of rainfall in early June in Andhra Pradesh.

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