HYDERABAD: Exploitation of groundwater has reduced drastically in the State due to the construction of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme and also due to the Mission Kakatiya programme, according to a report on groundwater levels released here on Tuesday. According to the report, Hyderabad is the only district in the State that has been categorised as ‘critical district’ for groundwater. Mahabubnagar, Rangareddy, Jangaon and Rajanna Sircilla have been categories as ‘semi-critical districts’.
All the other 28 districts in the State have been categorised as “safe” for groundwater. Irrigation Special Chief Secretary Rajat Kumar released three volumes of the report titled ‘Dynamic Groundwater Resources of Telangana State -2020’ and also chaired the sixth meeting of State Groundwater Coordination Committee (SGWCC) meeting on the National Aquifer Mapping Programme (NAQUIM). Rajat Kumar said that the groundwater resources were assessed at a periodic interval of three years.
He said that the proactive measures taken up by the State government led to an increase in water table by more than four metres in the last six years yielding approximately 400 tmcft of additional groundwater recharge and decrease in groundwater draft by about 15 per cent as compared to previous assessment.
Presently, about 93 per cent of villages and 70 per cent watersheds in the State come under the safe category, Rajat Kumar said. “Stage of groundwater extraction is 50 per cent (36 per cent in command and 61 per cent in non-command areas), which is 15 per cent lesser than the previous assessment. There is a reduction in the number of overexploited mandals — from 70 to 25 — and villages — from 1,745 to 721 — compared to the previous assessment,” Rajat Kumar said.
Rajat Kumar said that the reasons for increase in groundwater availability, decrease in groundwater extraction for all uses and stage of groundwater extraction are attributed to the initiatives taken up by the Telangana government through Mission Kakatiya, Mission Bhagiratha, construction of Kaleshwaram scheme and others.