Plummeting groundwater levels call for attention
HYDERABAD: Telangana has always been, reportedly, vulnerable to water scarcity. With low quantity of rain received and escalating mercury levels, the chances of water scarcity are increasing day after day. In what could only be considered rubbing salt into the wounds, the groundwater levels in the state have further gone deeper into the Earth by 0.67 metres.
The average groundwater level has plummeted to 13.40 metres below ground level (mbgl) by March 2019 which is much lower than the level during the same period last year, which was 12.73 mbgl.
The most affected areas include Ranga Reddy, Hyderabad, Sangareddy, Siddipet, Medak, Nagarkurnool, Vikarabad, Yadadri, and Nalgonda districts.
What is even more worrying is the fact that the places where water levels are already too deep, in some places it is as much as 20 mbgl, has further dropped in 66 of the 164 mandals. As per the details released by State government for March 2019, the deep water level crisis has its expansion over 15.6 per cent of the State’s geography. 33.5 per cent of the geographical location has a groundwater level in the range of five to 10 mbgl.This is also partly due to the low rainfall across the State between June 2018 and March 2019 as there was a 16 per cent deficit.