Groundwater in the district is fast depleting due to unscientific use of water resources, posing threat of water scarcity.
According to officials, the district that has the highest number of borewells in the State will face a serious disaster in the near future since there is no proportionate recharging of groundwater from natural water resources. Kasaragod has the highest percentage of groundwater extraction in the State, at 79%.
District Collector D. Sajith Babu said that a Central government team would reach the district to conduct more studies on water scarcity. The District Soil Conservation Officer and the Poverty Alleviation Unit head have been appointed as nodal officers for the execution of Jalashakthi Abhiyan, a Central government scheme, under which a project will be drafted to raise the groundwater level. A water use policy would be formulated, he said.
As per the 2017 report of the Groundwater Estimation Committee (GEC) under the Centre Water Resources Ministry, 97.68% of the groundwater in Kasaragod block has been extracted.
In 2013, the extraction was 90.52%. This was the highest and most critical groundwater extraction in the entire State. Though in 2005 Kasaragod, Kozhikode, Chittoor (Palakkad), Kodungalloor (Thrissur) and Athiyannur (Thiruvananthapuram) blocks had been identified as ‘over-exploited’, by 2017 these blocks, except Chittoor and Kasaragod, reached a safe position, it noted.
Semi-critical situation
As per the 2017 data, Manjeswaram, Karadukka, and Kanhangad blocks here are in a semi-critical situation in groundwater depletion. The extraction rate in the three blocks are 83.96%, 82.03% and 77.67% respectively. Neeleswaram and Parappa blocks alone were safe zones in the district. Their extraction rates were 57.57% and 55.34% in 2005 but increased to 69.52% and 66.97% in 2017.
Hydrologist B. Shabi said that these two blocks must have reached the semi-critical stage by this year. According to him, unscientific and uncontrolled irrigation was the main reason for water scarcity in the district which has very few industrial units.
In Karadukka block, while industrial extraction of groundwater is 3.479 hectare metre (one hectare metre equals 10,000 metre cube) and domestic extraction is 690.713 hectare metre, the use of water for irrigation 3,585.89 hectare metre. In Manjeswaram block, domestic extraction of groundwater is 1,174.18 hectare metre but irrigation use is 5,769.94 hectare metre. In Kanhangad block, irrigation consumes 3,970.95 hectare metre while domestic consumption is 1,199.029 hectare metre. If efforts are not taken to ensure maximum recharge of groundwater through rain harvesting, Kasaragod district will become a disaster area, Mr. Shabi warned.