Late on Monday night while going to visit Ensanpally Venkatapur tunnel in Siddipet district, Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao noticed a borewell being dug in a farm. He immediately stopped there and interacted with the farmer.
“Why are you wasting your money in digging a borewell? Don’t you know many farmers ended up committing suicide unable to repay the debts taken to dig bore-wells? Can’t you wait for few more months as we are making all out efforts to bring Godavari water to the district in six months?” asked Mr. Harish Rao.
He directed the officials to take action against the geologist and borewell rig owner.
Recently, one Kummari Mallaiah of Lingapuram in Hatnoora mandal dug another bore by spending about ₹ 30,000 as the existing bore dried up two weeks earlier. Though new bore yielded water it was not sufficient to meet the requirements of five acres of land which he was cultivating and he did not know what was in store for him.
Since the introduction of round-the-clock power supply to farm sector in January the ground water levels in the district have been fast depleting. In many places, water level in borewells is falling or the wells have been completely drying up compelling farmers to search for alternate water source.
Many places in the district were over-exploited and some are reaching the critical stage.
Kalher, Nagalgidda, Patancheru, Pulkal and Vatpally mandals were identified as over-exploited and parts of Patancheru, Ramachandrapuram and Masanpally under Kalher have been identified as critical,
“The average fall in water level in the district is 0.78 metres when compared to January 2018 may be attributed to industrial and farming sector,” said an official of the Ground Water Department.
