12-Recharge Estimation in Kongal River Basin Using Tritium Tagging Technique

Abstract

The over exploitation of groundwater is increasing due to urbanization and industrialization, resulting the progressive decline of water level. Thus recharge is taking an important role to bring the water level to its original level. Kongal river basin was selected for carrying out integrated studies to delineate the groundwater prospective zones. The basin area (about 180 km2) falls under hard rock granite terrain, situated at 50 km distance East of Hyderabad in Nalgonda district, A.P., India. The whole area is climatically semi-arid, fluoride enriched and faces shortage of water for drinking and irrigation purposes. About 25 sites were chosen for recharge estimation in the area. The tracer technique was used for estimation of natural recharge, irrigation returns in the paddy field besides studying the effect of dykes, topography and slope on recharge in the area. The results show that the fractional amount of recharge is 5% of the rainfall.