VIJAYAWADA: Groundwater levels in the drought-prone Rayalaseema region have increased significantly, bringing cheers to the farmers as they don’t need to worry much about the water requirement for the Rabi crop.
Excess rain in the region, which was almost double the normal rainfall, was the reason for the spurt in groundwater levels. Compared to 20.24 meters below ground level (MBGL) on the same day in 2019, it was 16.76 MBGL today.
However, the North Coastal districts — Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, and Visakhapatnam — witnessed dip in groundwater levels due to less rainfall. Even groundwater-levels in twin Godavari districts witnessed a decline. As per the statistics released by the Planning Department, as of today, the groundwater level in the State on an average improved by 1.70 MBGL. Today, the average groundwater-level in the State is 12.90 MBGL, while it was 14.60 MBGL last year. The groundwater level in Coastal Andhra Pradesh is 10.8 MBGL as against 10.47 MBGL last year on the same day, a marginal increase.
All the four districts in Rayalaseema witnessed an increase in groundwater-levels with Kadapa district witnessing an increase of 5.43 MBGL compared to last year, the highest increase in the State. The district has 18.52 MBGL today as against 23.94 MBGL on the same day last year.
Anantapur district, which has the second-lowest groundwater levels in the country and for years has been in the grip of drought with groundwater table at the lowest, witnessed a vast improvement owing to excess rainfall received this year. Compared to 23.85 MBGL on October 4, 2019, the groundwater level in the district is 19.79 MBGL today, 4.16 MBGL more than last year.
“It augurs well for the district, which has only witnessed drought and depleted groundwater table till last year. We saw a slight improvement last year and this year, the improvement was more significant. Reason is that only 10 percent of the rains get converted to groundwater in the district, unlike other places, as the soil in Anantapur is semi-permeable. Almost 40-50 percent of rainwater is a runoff, while 40 percent gets evaporated,” groundwater expert YV Malla Reddy told TNIE.
It was not just Anantapur, but the entire Rayalaseema saw improvement in the groundwater table. Chittoor district saw an increase of 2.82 MBGL (from 23.59 MBGL to 20.77 MBGL) and Kurnool has an increase of 1.73 MBGL (from 10.24 MBGL to 8.51 MBGL).On the other hand, North Andhra district Srikakulam saw a depletion of groundwater table by 1.98 MBGL compared to last year. Today groundwater level in the district is 5.62 MBGL as against 3.09 MBGL last year.
West Godavari district witnessed a dip of 1.36 MBGL (depth of groundwater levels increased to 18.76 MBGL from 17.41 MBGL last year). East Godavari district registered a decrease of 1.32 MBGL. Visakhapatnam and Vizianagaram district were two other districts that witnessed a dip in the groundwater table. While the reason for depletion of groundwater levels in North Andhra districts is attributed to low rainfall, the reason for depletion of the same in twin Godavari districts is yet to be ascertained.
Rainfall
According to government statistics, the State has received 22 percent excess rainfall this Monsoon. As against the seasonal cumulative (From June 1) of 592 mm as on date, the State received 722.2 mm rainfall. Kadapa district has the highest surplus rainfall of 68.97 percent. As against the normal rainfall of 423.71 mm, the district received 715.96 mm. Kurnool district received second highest surplus rainfall of 63.01 percent, followed by Anantapur district with 59.5 percent and Chittoor district with 46.71 percent. Nellore (35.98 percent) and Prakasam (25.87 percent) were in the next two positions.
Srikakulam district received 28.37 percent deficient rainfall and is the only district with deficient rainfall during this monsoon. Though both Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts received 17.14 percent and 3.43 percent less rainfall than normal, the decrease in rainfall was within the expected range, hence deemed normal rainfall. Major reservoirs in the State including Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Pulichintala, Somasilla, received increased inflows. As against the total storage capacity of these reservoirs (865.64 TMC), the present storage is 781.14 tmc while it was only 743.54 tmc last year on the same day.