The Hindu : Front Page : Groundwater level in Chennai declining

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Monday, May 07, 2007
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Groundwater level in Chennai declining

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: There has been a gradual decline in the groundwater level in the city for the past three months, but it is not alarming, according to a study by the Public Works Department.

The study conducted in the first quarter of 2007 by the State Ground and Surface Water Resources Data Centre, which is a PWD arm, showed that the average groundwater level dipped to 4.2 metre (below ground level) in January 2007. It was 3.8 m in June last year.

A PWD official said the rainfall in 2005 helped improve the level and the rains in the following year sustained the water level. The decline in the first three months of 2007, however, calls for better management of available water resources till the northeast monsoon. Otherwise, a crisis similar to the one seen in 2004 could loom large in the city, he said.

The average water level in sandy areas, where water percolation is fast, including Tiruvottiyur, Thoraipakkam, Saidapet and Triplicane, has dropped negligibly to 3.7 m in March 2007 from 3 m in December 2006. The depth in Flower Bazaar, Ayanavaram, Villivakkam and Arumbakkam has dropped to 3.3 m in March from 2.6 m in December. Areas that fall under hard rock zone such as Guindy, St.Thomas Mount, Tambaram and Nanganallur has dipped to as much as 4.1 m in March as against the 2.9 m last year-end.

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