Groundwater level in Odisha has decreased by 6.71 pc :Minister

The groundwater level in Odisha has decreased by 6.71 per cent between 2009 and 2017, state Water Resources minister Raghunandan Das said on Thursday.

Replying to questions in the Assembly, Das said said that 1.12 billion cubic metres of groundwater has depleted between 2009 and 2017.

A data of the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) says that the groundwater level in Odisha stood at 16.69 billion cubic metres in 2009 which reduced by 1.12 billion cubic metres to 15.57 billion in 2017, he told the Assembly.

"This is a decrease of 6.71 per cent", the minister said adding that the CGWB data says that the groundwater is fast depleting in Koraput district.

In 1999, the groundwater level was 0.82 billion cubic metres in the Koraput district which declined to 0.48 billion cubic metres now, Das said.

The minister said a huge volume of river water to the tune of 50,646 million cubic meters flows to the sea.

The minister said according to an estimation by State Water Plan-2014, the volume of surface water in all the rivers in the state is 95,540 million cubic meter of which 44,894.09 million cubic meter (MCM) water is used for different purposes like irrigation (21,793.19 MCM), public water supply (283.95 MCM), industrial use (2275.85 MCM), environmental requirement (20,541.10 MCM).