VIJAYAWADA: Students from IIIT have taken up a study to know the causes for the depleting water level in the over-exploited villages of Krishna district, under the guidance of the Ground Water Department, Vijayawada.
Fourteen final year Civil Engineering students, 13 from IIIT-Nuzvid and one from IIIT-Basara, are working on the level of ground water and its properties in Musunuru mandal in the district.
They have taken up the study as a part of their academic project work.
Deputy director of Ground Water Department, A Varaprasada Rao, said that this would help them in acquiring practical knowledge. “This is the first of its kind project undertaken by us. We train the students for eight weeks.
The first week is devoted to theory. After the theory classes, we depute the students to work in the villages for six weeks during which period they collect samples for tests to gauge the water level. In the eighth week, they will prepare a report on their observations from the tests, completing the project” said A Varaprasada Rao.
He further said that the students were sent to to Musunuru, Surepalli and the surrounding villages to examine causes behind the depleting ground water table as Musunuru and Surepalli were among the 36 villages in the district where the ground water is over-exploited.
In Musunuru, the ground water levels have fallen to 36.3 m below the ground level in the year 2014 and below 28 m in 2013.
However, the ground water levels in Surepalli village came down by 2 m in one water year from June 2013 to May 2014. “We have examined the field data by conducting tests and checking whether or not this region could be restored to its normal position,” said Priyanka, a student of IIIT Basara.
The students said that the project had taught them concepts which were outside their curriculum.
“We were able to practically study aqua properties, recharge capacity, geology of the region, type of rocks in the regions and so on,” explained K Valli Durga from IIIT-Nuzvid.
These 14 students were mentored by A Visveswara Rao, geophysicist at the Ground Water Department, who along with the students, participated in the field tests.
“We started the project on May 26 and are almost at the end of it. The students have collected the required samples which were sent to our laboratory at Dowleswaram.
We will come up with a detailed report by July 19 on the falling water table,” he added.