Geohydrology of South Mahanadi Delta and Chilika Lake, Odisha

Ground water is a perennial water bank which is credited by recharging and debited through drafts or well capture. About 80% of people in Odisha live in villages. The people depend upon wells for domestic uses and agriculture. Climatic anomalies, uplift/down drift and excess draft have depleted or contaminated the ground water. Irrigation, the largest user of ground water is in jeopardy or underdevelopment today. About 200 to 300sqkm out of 1532sqkm of Chilika area is deprived of surface irrigation. Irrigation can not be provided to remote hilly and lacustrine patches of the south corner of the basin. Chilika Lagoon and its periphery six blocks around could not use surface flow for water logging, salinity intrusion and back water. Alternate resort of practice can be Ground water is the only source of Irrigation and utilities. Recharging and discharging rates to aquifers are difficult to access. Surface Water available is sometimes inadequate and inappropriate to meet the demand. Location of aquifers, their depth, extension and rate of recharge in south Mahanadi delta and the lagoon area is discussed in the paper. Ground water recharge in two major towns Bhubaneswar and Puri is focused and correlated with rainfall. Though ground water depletion is not vulnerable today, but its scarcity of ground water in future is anticipated. Optimum use of Ground water and their recharging at the field level are the topic of study.