Dwindling of fresh water supplies, inequitable access to water and Corporate control of water poses greatest threat to present and potential unrest in low income groups of rural and urban population of Andhra Pradesh.
Economically well off people get the scarce commodity by paying the premium, but it is a considerable burden to the middle class(the scale of impact on low income groups can only be left to imagination) to buy water for domestic needs. In this process, water bottling companies are doing a brisk business in the name of “hygiene”. The tried and tested process of boiling and filtering provides water whose quality is considerably higher than the “run of mill” bottled water. Boiling of water removes the dangerous bacteria and filtering gets rid of mud or silt. In a few isolated locations, harmful minerals like fluorides, arsenic and phosphorus, etc., may be present in the water in a dissolved form which is very difficult to identify. To identify such mineral contaminated water, greater efforts from Government and Scientific institutions are necessary. This may sound cynical but majority of the branded Mineral water gives no assurance of such mineral absence from their products. Numerous reports in media have indicated the harmful chemicals in soft drinks manufactured by biggest multinational companies known to mankind; Water is the primary source of this contamination.
The scourge of drinking water problems across the state only aggravates with each passing summer. Following are the general problems encountered every year for getting potable drinking water.
In urban cities and towns, the common problem is decline of water levels in reservoirs, lakes and high capacity bore wells. The authorities find it difficult to maintain the supply of water during summer season in required quantity as used to be supplied during other seasons. Similarly, the domestic bore wells also fail to discharge water sufficiently during summer season due to steep decline of water levels in these urban areas.
In rural areas, hundreds of hand pumps operating on bore wells are under repair or the bore wells go dry.
Due to the failure of domestic bore wells, the residents of villages go to Irrigation bore wells for fetching drinking water. It is not an easy job to get water from irrigation bore wells as the power supply is available in night time and sometimes these residents particularly women get snubbed by farmers. It is also reported that in a few villages the public goes to lakes, ponds and rivers to get water. In that process they dig small pits on the bed of these minor irrigation sources.
In a few villages of Nalgonda and Khammam districts where there is no nearby potable water source, villagers are forced to consume fluoride rich groundwater. In a few localities government agencies are supplying potable water through tankers. Though protected water schemes are implemented in a good number of villages, the schemes became non-functional in some villages for want of minor repairs.
In coastal villages, the limited quantity of fresh water floating on underlying saline
Water gets exhausted during summer season. If this limited water is utilized for
Drinking water purposes only, no problem would have arisen but the increased irrigation activities besides fish ponds and prawn culture in this belt aggravated the problem.
All the above mentioned problems repeat every summer season. If government agencies take appropriate measures with the cooperation of local public just before the onset of summer season, most of the above problems can be solved.
The fluoride problem and decline of water levels in reservoirs and lakes that are meant for supplying drinking water to towns and cities would still remain. For tackling water problem in these areas, bigger plans with high budgets are required. To solve the fluoride problem in Podili, Kanigiri and Darsi Taluks of Prakasam district, water from Nagarjunsagar Dam was transported to this area and lakes and ponds were filled with fresh water. A similar approach can be followed in the case of fluoride affected areas of Nalgonda and Khammam districts. Similarly, bigger schemes are required to enhance the storage of water sources in urban cities and towns by transporting water through pipe line from rivers or bigger streams wherever feasible.
Drying up of domestic bore wells in towns and cities and shallow bore wells with hand pumps in villages and small towns owing to decline of water levels is a serious problem. The main reason for this is energization of agricultural pump sets in a big way from 1980 onwards. As a result, the depth of bore wells gradually increased from 150 to 300 feet. The pumpset energisation programme was so intense particularly in Telangana districts of Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda and Nizamabad where about 30,000 to 50,000 pump sets were existing in each district by 1980, but subsequently the pump set energization has increased with great speed and today, the number of agricultural pumpsets in Karimnagar district are more than 2.75 lakhs and in the other 3 districts, more than 2.0 lakshs. Similarly,in the districts of Medak and Mahabubnagar too the number of pumpsets are more than 1.5 lakhs (in each district). In view of the large number of agricultural pumpsets with deep bore wells, the shallow bore wells drilled for domestic purposes ran dry. In some places where water source is good, hand pumps are under repair. People seem to be suffering everywhere for want of drinking water for some reason or the other!
It is reported in the newspapers that as the domestic bores have gone dry, the villages depend on irrigation bore wells for drinking water purposes. It indicates that water is available at greater depths. Hence authorities can drill deep bore wells in suitable locations and install power driven Jet Air pumps. For drinking water purpose shallow bore wells were drilled in rural habitations along with hand pump installation due to lack of power supply but after 90’s , cent percent electrification has been achieved at village and hamlet level. In view of this particularly in villages with hard rock belt, hand pumps should be dispensed with and bore wells may be drilled equivalent to the depth of existing irrigation wells in the same village or nearby villages. These drinking water bore wells should also be energized with electric pump sets as the depth of borewells
is quite deep and handpumps may not be able to lift water to such higher discharge head.It is a common scene in the rural areas to see that majority of handpumps are under repair wherever depth of borewells are more than 150 feet. Also it involves lot of physical labour to fetch water from handpump borewells.It is advisable to remove all the handpumps on borewells wherever the depth of borewells are beyond 150 feet and replace with power driver pumpsets in phased manner.
is quite deep and handpumps may not be able to lift water to such higher discharge head.It is a common scene in the rural areas to see that majority of handpumps are under repair wherever depth of borewells are more than 150 feet. Also it involves lot of physical labour to fetch water from handpump borewells.It is advisable to remove all the handpumps on borewells wherever the depth of borewells are beyond 150 feet and replace with power driver pumpsets in phased manner.
In Adilabad, Khammam, parts of Karimnagar (Manthani, Mahadevpur) and Warangal
In the above regions if the authorities intend to go in for drilling deep borewells, after successful completion of wells, instead of hand pumps, Jet Air pumps may be installed so that water can be stored in nearby storage tanks which are erected on cement structures. It will be easy for villagers to fetch water. If discharge of water from these borewells is medium to poor, Air compressor pumps can be installed.
This transformation from shallow bore wells to deep bore wells with power driven pumpsets takes considerable time to implement. In the meantime, teams of mechanics with all the necessary repair equipment in suitable vehicles should be made available at the district level so that they can attend to the repairs immediately. Similarly, there are reports that in protected water supply schemes too, schemes are non-operative due to minor repairs. For undertaking repairs to such schemes, a team of mechanics with repair equipment loaded in a vehicle should be made available at district level. Close monitoring of such activities by some nominated officers at the district level and water user associations will greatly help in getting the work done early.
Besides all that has been said above, the most important and dangerous problem faced by some sections of population is ‘pollution’ of water through industrial pollutants, leakage of sewerage pipes, mixing of groundwater and drainage water in the areas where shallow groundwater conditions exist particularly during rainy season. This mixing of drinking water in shallow bore wells and drainage (sewerage)water is common during rainy season in the areas located along major rivers like Godavari and Krishna, in canal command areas and deltaic areas. Most of the villages located in such areas do not have underground drainage and toilets are constructed with local pits. Lack of connectivity of pits and locations of final disposal in far off places causes mixing of drinking water with sewerage flow. In such localities, particularly during rainy season, several diseases like diarrhoea, jaundice will affect the population. Priority should be given to schemes dealing with sanitation and water.
To restore the deep groundwater levels to shallow levels and to increase the discharge of wells, artificial recharge of groundwater should be taken up in areas like Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Mahabubnagar and Chittoor districts which are densely populated with agricultural pumpsets. Artificial recharge methods like induced recharge through borewells, construction of ponds, etc., should be taken up in suitable locations. The source of water for this artificial recharge can be from the flood canal being constructed from Sriramsagar project and the irrigation canals being constructed under phase-I and II of the same project. It is also not out of place to mention that during the construction of canals in these districts, provision may be made in certain selected locations for 2- to 3-metre pits which may be constructed using the filtering arrangement so that some part of canal flow can be utilized for artificial recharge of groundwater in Karimnagar, Warangal, Nalgonda and Mahabubnagar districts as well as in the upland areas of West Godavari and East Godavari districts. In all the proposed irrigation projects, to the extent possible, more number of ponds may be constructed along the route of canals in higher altitudes compared to the location of irrigation wells so that recharge of water can be done to improve the water levels and discharge of wells.
To improve the water levels and discharge of borewells, water harvesting methods in Hyderabad city and restoration of existing lakes, desilting of lakes and construction of new lakes in high altitude points should be taken up so that these lakes can recharge the borewells to improve water supplies.
There are many areas where unconsolidated sediments like sand, silt and clay formations are existing like deltaic areas and along the rivers. In a few locations in Gandepalli and Rangampet mandals of East Godavari district, there are recent Tertiary geological formations which are characterized by sand, silt, loose soil,and sandstore etc., for considerable depths. They are not suitable for the normal down-the-hole-hammer drilling method and construction of which is generally deployed in hardrock formations. In these areas, rotary drilling may be taken up. Technical opinion may be taken for lowering the tubewell assembly which consists of casing pipe, slotted pipe, bailplug, size of gravel, etc. It was observed that in these areas, tubewells are drilled and the casing pipe is lowered upto bottom without any gravel packing and slotted pipes. Without these additional precautions, the full benefits of tube wells cannot be realised.
In the extreme conditions of drought, services of experienced Hydrogeologists who might have worked for more than 2 to 3 years in groundwater survey and drilling of bores in a similar district should be utilised. Such experienced hydrogeologists know subsurface geology, groundwater conditions of aquifers, etc., and would be able to give proper guidance for solving the water problems.
During summer season, due to decline of water levels and reduction in discharge of
borewell water, problems arise with regard to the setting position of submersible pumpsets. When the discharge of a borewell reduces, the water level will go down within a few minutes after starting of the pumpset. There is likelihood that the water level may go down below the submersible pumpset. If the pump runs without water coloumn, the pumpset gets damaged. Submersible pumpsets function well when there is good yield and a better recuperation rate. If discharge of water is low and steep drawdown is recorded in deep borewells, air compressor pumps may be installed. If the borewells are shallow and yield is poor, jet air pumps may be used.
In the case of exhaustion of most of the water sources in the villages, demarcation of
buried river channels, valley fill areas and highly favourable groundwater zones may be demarcated on mandalwise maps utilizing satellite imagery and aerial photography. If such maps are available, it is easy to identify suitable locations for exploitation of groundwater in the times of accurate shortage of drinking water.
There should be a consumer center in every district for giving advice regarding the
drilling of borewells, selection of pumpsets, quality of groundwater, etc. The center should consist of a Hydrogeologist, a Mechanical Engineer who had experience in drilling of borewells for water and pumpset selection and mechanics who can undertake repairs to pumpsets and borewells. 