Beed administration starts requisition of wells

The Beed district administration has started the process of requisition of 587 wells located in submerged area of various dams to deal with likely water shortage next year, an official said on Friday.

The district in the parched Marathwada region of central Maharashtra is likely to experience water scarcity next year too.

"Till mid-September last year, we had received 350 mm of rainfall as compared to 290 mm in the same period this year. The situation may worsen and a majority of areas in the district will have to depend on underground water from January 2020," Beed District Collector Astik Kumar Pandey to PTI.

To deal with the situation, the administration has started requisitioning 587 wells located close to the dams in and around the district, he said.

Eleven talukas will have to depend on water from tankers, and these wells will be converted into tanker-filling points, the collector added.

According to the official, the GPS mapping of these wells is completed and almost 200 wells have been requisitioned.

Meanwhile, water for Ashti, Shirur Kasar and Patoda talukas will be made available from the Sina dam and other sources in Ahmednagar district, Pandey said.

The Majalgaon dam will be utilised for Beed, Wadwani, Patoda, Dharur and parta of Wadwani talukas. The Khadka dam will act as a key source for Parali and Ambejogai talukas, the collector explained.

"We will transport last drop of water by trenches to pumping stations. But once the surface water is dry, we will start using wells in the Manjara dam area," he said.

Water source for Kej taluka is a major concern for the district administration. "We will source water from wells near the Manjara dam for Kej, he added.