IMPACT AND BENEFITS OF NATURAL GROUNDWATER RECHARGE BY WIDENING AND DEEPENING OF A STREAM. A CASE STUDIED OF A STREAM IN AURANGABAD DISTRICT

Abstract

Groundwater conditions are the primary source of drinking and irrigation water in rural Maharashtra. The static groundwater level has fluctuated dramatically during the last few years in the study area. A scientific approach of naala deepening and widening influenced in the area, we measured static water level in the dug wells by well inventory method, before and after work. A stream having length about 20 km were studied ignoring confluence point. The 1 ^st order and the last order are varied in excavation depth gives rise to good result in the region. Streams are deepening up to the weathered rocks by excavation and in some places deepening is more than 12 meters so widening will be proportionate to it. The general concept of excavation is to touch the weathered rock as a naala bed. The recharge is seen in the nearby dug wells. Excavations of intercalated calcic bed in the naalas are the basic barriers for the percolations have been removed. Widening and deepening gives more man days for percolations while run off is steady slow because of some engineering structures like CNB. In the plateau area storage capacity is automatically increased by widening and deepening of streams hence much more volume of surface water will be percolated by overlain hydrostatic pressure into the ground vigorously. And approximately more than 20 villages around stream line are benefitted for the basic need of drinking and irrigation. Water level in the wells shows recharge beginning from the first rain of monsoon.