Water resources development and management in the Cuddapah district, India

Autor: T. V. K. Reddy, M. Ramakrishna Reddy, N. Janardhana Raju, Y. Venkatarami Reddy
Rok vydání: 2000
Předmět:
Zdroj: Environmental Geology. 39:342-352
ISSN: 1432-0495
0943-0105
Popis: Intensive application of surface water in command areas of irrigation projects is creating water logging problems, and the increase of groundwater usage in agriculture, industry and domestic purposes (through indiscriminate sinking of wells) is causing continuous depletion of water levels, drying up of wells and quality problems. Thus the protect aquifers to yield water contin- uously at economical cost, the management of wa- ter resources is essential. Integrated geological, hy- drological (surface and groundwater) and geochem- ical aspects have been studied for the development and management of water resources in drought- prone Cuddapah district. The main lithological units are crystallines, quartzites, shales and lime- stones. About 91000 ha of land in the Cuddapah district is irrigated by canal water. A registered ayacut of about 47000 ha is irrigated by 1368 minor irrigation tanks. A total of 503 spring channels are identified in the entire district originating from the rivers/streams, which has the capacity of irrigating about 8700 ha. The average seasonal rise in ground- water level is 7.32 m in quartzites, 5.35 m in crys- tallines, 3.82 m in shales, 2.50 m in limestones and 2.11 m in alluvium. Large quantities of groundwater are available in the mining areas which can be util- ised and managed properly by the irrigation de- partment/cultivators for the irrigation practices. Groundwater assessment studies revealed that 584 million m 3 of groundwater is available for future irrigation in the district. From the chemical analy- sis, the quality of groundwater in various rock units is within the permissible limits for irrigation and domestic purposes, but at a few places the spe- cific conductance, chloride and fluoride contents are high. This may be due to untreated effluents, improper drainage system and/or the application of fertilisers.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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