Irrigation dept installs flowmeters, rain gauges to check water usage

According to the district irrigation department, 99 of 165 villages in the district are in the “red zone”, where water level has gone down more than 630 metres

Deputy commissioner Nishant Yadav on Thursday visited Palri village to take stock of the implementation of the central government’s Atal Bhujal Yojana, a groundwater management scheme, and exhorted locals to actively participate in it as the entire district was water stressed and interventions were required to boost groundwater table.

Inaugurated on December 25, 2019, on the 95th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the scheme aims to improve groundwater management in the seven states of Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. (HT Archive)

According to the district irrigation department, 99 of 165 villages in the district are in the “red zone”, where water level has gone down more than 630 metres.

Yadav during his visit to Palri village also witnessed the functioning of a flowmeter installed by the irrigation department -- these are being installed in panchayats to assess the extraction of groundwater by privately owned tubewells. “People must actively participate in interventions introduced under this scheme as it will help in making optimum use of water,” he said.

Inaugurated on December 25, 2019, on the 95th birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the scheme aims to improve groundwater management in the seven states of Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh .

Dr Shiv Singh Rawat, superintending engineer, irrigation department, said that under the Atal Bhujal scheme, the department had installed flowmeters in 204 panchayats on privately owned tubewells to assess the actual extraction of groundwater.

“The purpose of installing these flowmeters is to know the actual rate of pumping and, based on this data, the interventions with regard to saving water and its efficient and productive usage will be made. The aim of the Atal Bhujal scheme is to find out what is actually happening on the ground and design interventions based on local conditions,” he said.

Rawat said they have also installed rain gauges in 162 villages in the district under this scheme to accurately capture rainfall data, which did not happen earlier.