HYDERABAD: Though the Greater Hyderabad area has received 630 mm rainfall this monsoon, which amounts to 555.4 billion litres of rainwater, less than 7 per cent of rainwater seeped into the ground.
“Water absorption takes places only in open areas and even then it is less than 7 per cent. Nearly 20-30 per cent of water absorbed by the surface will also evaporate and the rest is wasted,” State groundwater department director Dr Pandith Madhnure said adding water not harvested is wasted.
According to the Indian Metrological Department, 630 mm rainfall accounts for 555.4 billion litres of water. This figure is arrived at by multiplying 630 mm rainfall with the total area of GHMC (650 sq km).
“If I pour 100 litres of water, only one litre is absorbed through a banded gneiss rock formation. Otherwise, it is only through the ridges and grooves that most of the water seeps into the ground and that is less than 7 per cent,” he said.
It is only during the monsoon that groundwater gets recharged. Though it rains throughout the year it barely helps to improve groundwater table, he said.
“Unplanned grey areas are restricting the amount of water percolating into the earth. Even the municipal corporation is removing stagnated water from roads and is flowing it into drains which are already filled with mud. If the corporation plans, our city, has a lot of potentials to harvest water,” an official from the groundwater department, who wished not to be named, said.