Awareness program on groundwater recharge held in Hyderabad

The project is undertaken by GHMC and The Rainwater Project (TRP) as part of a national initiative by the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA).

Hyderabad: An awareness program on the shallow aquifer recharge project was conducted at the Kakatiya Park in Habsiguda on Tuesday.

Along with the civic officials, local residents also participated in the event.

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The project is undertaken by GHMC and The Rainwater Project (TRP) as part of a national initiative by the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). The park has a watershed area of over 6.85 lakh sq meters with a storage capacity of 44.6 crore liters and an annual rainfall potential of 53 lakh liters. This project enhanced that capacity which will not just recharge groundwater but also reduce urban flooding.

Apart from Kakatiya Park, this initiative is taken at four other parks in the city. In its press statement, GHMC said, “Groundwater levels are falling severely in the city, with many borewells getting dry. At the same time, the streets in the city are being flooded even for small rains. To address this issue, GHMC has taken up the ‘Shallow aquifer recharge project ‘ on a pilot basis, as part of the AMRUT scheme under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.”

Under this initiative, shallow water injection borewells to a depth of 100 to 120 feet will be set up to pump out the water in the shallow aquifers. This will help the layers underneath recharge whenever there is rainfall, collecting water from the surrounding watershed areas and channeling through recharge pits.

Additional Commissioner (UBD) Dr. Sunanda Rani, Deputy Director Chandra Sekhara Rao, Kalpana Ramesh from TRP, and other officials participated in the event.