The Visakhapatnam district has faced drastic dip in groundwater levels due to the deficit rainfall in the past few years as well as the ever-increasing demands on groundwater for irrigation, drinking and other purposes in the district of over 15 drought-hit declared mandals by the state government.

A senior officer opined that the recharge of the ground water could take more time, most probably after monsoon.

It is learnt that the government has also strictly instructed the departments concerned not to issue permits for digging new borewells in any part of the district in the ensuing summer, keeping the alarming situation in mind.

On the other hand, the department of rural water supply (RWS) has prepared a summer action plan to meet the requirement of drinking water in the ensuing summer, which is likely to be hit by the first week of March.

According to the studies by the ground water department here, the depth of ground water had currently dropped to 7.11 metres due to scarce rainfall in the past one year.

The department conducted a state-level survey on the ground water from No-vember 2010 to November 2011. Upland areas have been the worst hit followed by the coastal districts in the district. Agency mandals have been exempted.

On the other hand, the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) officials maintained that the water levels at the reservoirs were low when compared with the 2011 levels.

The GVMC is currently supplying 52 to 54 mgd of water against the required 80 mgd to as many as 23 lakh residents in the city.

Speaking to this newspaper on Wednesday, the RWS superintendent engineer, Mr K. Krishna Kishore, said that their department has prepared Rs.3.4 crore summer action plan to check the drinking water scarcity in the ensuing summer. The proposal was sent to the government for its approval. The department is currently busy preparing a detailed report on the plan.