71 talukas in Marathwada parched

AURANGABAD: People are reeling under water crisis as groundwater level in 71 out of the 76 talukas across the eight districts of Marathwada has dropped as compared to average level during the past five years.
As per official data available with the Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency (GSDA), this also includes a total of 27 talukas where the groundwater level has worrisomely dipped by more than 2 meter.
Osmanabad district has reported maximum drop of 3.21 meter in groundwater level, followed by Beed (2.59 m), Jalna (2.42m), Aurangabad (1.79m), Parbhani (1.61m), Latur (1.62m), Hingoli (0.98m) and Nanded (0.48m).
The GSDA authorities surveyed a total of 875 dug-wells in several districts of Marathwada to gauge the status of groundwater level by the end of March. As far as Aurangabad district is concerned, Khuldabad taluka has witnessed a drop in groundwater level up to one meter, while in Aurangabad, Phulambri, Kannad, Vaijapur and Gangapur the drop is between one and two meter.
In Paithan and Sillod talukas, the water level has gone down between two and three meter, while Soygaon taluka has reported the maximum drop in the groundwater level — over three meter.
GSDA authorities have attributed the drop in the groundwater level in the region to poor monsoon during last season. “A total of 74 talukas from Marathwada out of 76 received less than average annual rainfall in the last rainy season. It includes 11 talukas which reported over 50% deficiency in the average annual rainfall, while another 44 talukas that received average annual rainfall in the range of 30% to 50%. Poor rainy season of 2018 has reflected in terms of depleted groundwater level,” a senior GSDA official said.
As per official data, Aurangabad division reported 117% average rainfall in June, followed by 54% in July, 93.2% in August and 13.4% in September. Besides relatively poor monsoon in 2018, Marathwada did not receive any major rainfall during the return phase of Monsoon which made the situation from bad to worse.
On being asked about how the groundwater level depleted in Marathwada despite claims of large-scale works under the Jalyukta Shivar, GSDA official tried to de-link the state flagship water conservation programme with official findings of the survey.“Jalyukta Shivar comprises wide nature of work and it is done watershed-wise. The dug-wells covered under our survey may not come under the respective watersheds,” he said. The GSDA survey covered highest number of wells in Aurangabad district (141), followed by Nanded (134), Beed (126), Osmanabad (114), Latur (109), Jalna (110), Parbhani (86) and Hingoli (55).