Published: April 9, 2018 4:34:43 am

Pune district has ranked fourth in the state in retaining sufficient groundwater levels. There are only 17 villages across four talukas that showed marginal fall in the ground water table.

This was revealed in the latest survey carried out by the Groundwater Survey and Development Agency (GSDA). According to it, Pune district had a maximum of 12 villages showing depletion, followed by five villages with a depletion between 1m to 2m in the groundwater levels. There was no village here that showcased the maximum depletion, categorised at 3m and above by GSDA across the wells measured from a total of 13 talukas that come under Pune district.

A senior geologist at GSDA explained the possible reasons for this trend in Pune, which is after Thane (3 villages) and Palghar (7 villages) districts in the Konkan region. He said: “The rainfall during the last monsoon is the main contributor that resulted in excellent recharge of groundwater tables. In addition, the various intervention programmed helped in control use of groundwater as surface water (dams or rivers) stocked enough water for use.”

Pune in madhya Maharashtra and Konkan region had received excess rainfall during 2017 monsoon season. Among remaining five districts under Pune region — Pune, Solapur, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur; Sangli (96) and Solapur(77) faired poorest. Though no villages in Satara had their water tables fall below 3-metre mark, Solapur remained the only district in the region where water levels in 20 villages fell more than 3m. Of the total 225 villages, where water levels had depleted, 41 villages listed for 2m – 3m category while 164 villages, maximum of them in Sangli, had water level deplete marginally between 1m-2m.

Source : The Indian Express

Link : http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/groundwater-level-pune-district-fourth-in-state/