Kaleshwaram, medium irrigation tanks helped in increasing groundwater in Telangana

The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme coupled with a series of initiatives taken up by the Telangana govt, has helped in a major way in increasing the groundwater levels

Hyderabad: The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS), coupled with a series of initiatives taken up by the Telangana government, has helped in a major way in increasing the groundwater levels considerably in the State.

The average pre-monsoon groundwater levels in Telangana during 2015 was 13.27 meter below ground level (m bgl) while the same had improved to 9.01 m bgl during 2022, a rise of 4.26 m in seven years, according to the State Ground Water Department (GWD).

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Construction of KLIS along with minor and medium irrigation (MI) tanks and check dams, apart from the Haritha Haram programme, coupled with incessant rains during every monsoon, were the main contributing factors for the rise in groundwater levels.

Under Scheduled Castes Development Fund and Scheduled Tribes Development Fund, as many as 2,885 sites were recommended for construction of bore wells and tube wells in Singareni areas through which 6,615 hectares were brought under assured irrigation and 4,500 beneficiaries drawing the benefits.

The department monitors water levels monthly from Piezometers (PZs) spread all over State and command area wells and generates maps, charts and reports to the government at regular intervals for taking policy decisions.

The department monitors 3400 stations including PZs, and command area wells on a regular basis. The density of monitoring network wells in the State is about 86Km2/well which is far above the national density network of 140 Km2 /well. The department periodically estimates the groundwater resources in consultation with Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) and recently completed the assessment for the year 2022 (base data of upto May 2022).

The total annual extractable groundwater resources were 19,251 million cubic meter (mcm) and groundwater extraction for all uses was 8,009 mcm. The stage of groundwater extraction reduced from 50 per cent from earlier assessment to 42 per cent and now 83 per cent of mandals from the State were under the safe category.

The department took up impact assessment studies on groundwater regime in nine basins having high groundwater extraction and studies were also carried out for pre-monsoon and post-scenario period for seven years.

During post scenario assessment, a rise of about 2.4 m (pre-monsoon) and 8.6 m (pre-monsoon) was observed in the influence zone as compared to pre-scenario and water level trends have shown a rise of about 18 per cent more in influence zone as compared to non-influence zone. Groundwater extraction was reduced by 29 per cent and now the overall area falls in the safe category, officials said.