ONGOLE: The State government has issued orders imposing a ban on digging new bore wells and extracting groundwater in a total of 258 villages across the State as per the AP Water, Land and Trees Act (WALTA) 2002, including 91 villages of the combined Prakasam district.
Apart from Prakasam district, the government has imposed the ban in 76 villages of Srikakulam district, 39 in Sri Sathya Sai district, 20 in Palnadu district, 14 in Anantapur, 10 in Kadapa and 8 villages in Chittoor district.
The government has taken this action due to the drastic decrease in groundwater levels and increased water consumption in the above areas.
Among the 91 gram panchayats in 12 mandals of the combined Prakasam district, most of them are situated in the Western Prakasam region. In the 91 villages, Pullalacheruvu mandal has 17 villages, Peddaraveedu 13, Markapuram 10, Giddaluru 9, Yerragondapalem 8, Tripurantakam 7, Mundlamuru 6, Pedda Dornala and Donakonda 5 villages each, Cumbum and Kurichedu 4 each and Racharla mandal has 3 villages. The Government has stated in the recent orders that, even for drinking water purposes, no digging is allowed without prior permission from the concerned authorities.
“Based on the groundwater level statistics and water availability, the government will impose ban on digging new bore wells, and it will be enforced up to the year-end,” Joseph Kumar, Prakasam district DWMA Project Director, told TNIE.
Over the last few years, water scarcity and declining groundwater levels have become a regular occurrence in these areas. In 2020, in response to the then-severe groundwater-level depletion, the Government issued ban orders for 123 villages across Prakasam district.
Then in 2021, ban orders were issued for 91 villages. In 2022-23, the ban was implemented for 53 villages and in 2024, it was imposed in 57 villages. Last year, in 2025, ban orders were issued for 93 villages.
