Aurangbad-District

District Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Background :-

In Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, 03 sub-basins of the district have been divided into 52 catchment areas and 141 observation wells have been identified to represent the groundwater level in each catchment area for the sub-areas of drainage, recharge and storage through Ground Water Survey and Development System. Probability of drinking water scarcity is predicted based on the study of groundwater level in wells determined for the catchment area (four times in a water year, in the months of September, January, March and May). However, taking into consideration the geography, geological structure and day by day increasing ground water withdrawal, monitoring well network has been extended in 1267 villages of the district under Jalswarajya-2 project to know the deviation of ground water level at the village level in the district. This is the first time in the district that groundwater level has been studied in such a large number of observation wells.

Regional availability of ground water depends on rainfall, topography, geological structure, and use of ground water (absorption) and a brief description of the same is given below.

Location

This district is located between 19o15′ to 20o40′ North latitude and 74o37′ to 75o52′ East longitude. It is bordered by Jalgaon district to the north, Nashik district to the west, Ahmednagar, Beed district to the south and Parbhani and Buldhana districts to the east respectively. The geographical area of ​​the district is 10107sq km.

1. Rainfall :-

Taluk-wise annual average rainfall data obtained through the Collector’s office is made available and compared with the Taluk-wise rainfall of four years.

Based on the regional variation of rainfall, the district has been divided into three taluka wise as follows.

Table no. 01- Rainfall Division of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar District

2. Geographical structure:-

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district is made up of Deccan Plateau and geographically the district has three main parts as follows.

1. Very rugged and hilly areas
2. plateau part

3 Plains and riverine areas

In terms of ground water availability, these four parts can be classified as follows-

1. Chhatrapati is a catchment area mainly in hilly areas and highly fragmented and hilly areas –

Kannada Sillod Soygaon taluka in the northern part of Sambhajinagar district included a total of 11 catchment areas. It includes the eastern hills of the Sahyadri mountain range. This region falls under the Run off Zone (A) category. Groundwater availability is low in this region.

3. Plateau Area – Out of total 52 watershed areas in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, 32 watershed areas are in Plateau area. It mainly covers the southern part of Sillod and Kannada talukas including Phulumbri Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Vaijapur, and Gangapur talukas, all of which falls under recharge zone (B) category. In this plateau area, the soil type is medium and in some parts it is good.
4. The flat and riverine lowlands are classified into a total of 9 catchment areas in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district. This catchment area mainly includes the taluks of Vaijapur, Gangapur and southern part of Paithan taluk. In this, as the slope of the land is extremely low and some parts are low, the amount of water seeping and storing underground is high.

River and canal networks

The major river in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district is Godavari and it has three tributaries (Shivana, Girja, Purna). 80 percent of the district falls in the Godavari basin and 20 percent of the area in Soygaon and Sillod talukas falls in the Tapi basin. These sub-basins are divided into 52 catchment zones and each zone is divided into drainage (A-Zone), recharge (B-Zone), storage zone (C-Zone). Area wise area is as follows.

Sub-basin wise catchment area

A) Predominantly rugged and hilly areas

Watershed Area (11) (Run off Zone) = 1353.15 ha. 13% ‘A’ Zone

B) Watershed area (32) (Recharge Zone) 7274.96 ha mainly in plateau area. 68%-‘B’ Zone

C) Flat and riverine watershed area (9) (Storage Zone) = 1968.36 ha.19%- ‘C’ Zone

Geological Structure :-

The area of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district is covered by multi-layered southern shear (basalt) rock. The ground water holding capacity (permeability and permeability) of this rock depends on the extent of its disintegration, the openings created in it. In the area along the banks of the main rivers in the district, this rock is overlain by a layer of local sediments. Such silt (sand) layer is useful for holding ground water but its coverage area is very small. Decomposed and opportunistic basalt is the main aquifer in the district and its groundwater holding or yielding capacity is limited to 1 to 3 percent of its total volume.