As Khandepar river level dips, WRD draws water from Codli, Zarapkar mining pits for Opa

Ponda: Despite a marginal dip in the flow of Khandepar river and its tributaries, the water resources department (WRD) has been relentlessly working to rejuvenate the river basin at Opa water works to ensure the treatment plants can draw sufficient raw water.

At 5pm on Wednesday, the water level at Opa water works stood 3.10m. In comparison to the corresponding period last year, the river was overflowing from the 5m high gates of the barrage. The overflow, which was followed by the timely monsoon, continued until October 23 last year.

Using three pumps, WRD has been drawing water from abandoned mining pits and directing it into Khandepar river over the past few days so that the basin level at Opa is maintained within normal range.

The pumping helps rejuvenate Opa river which feeds all five water treatment plants at the Opa ward of Khandepar village in Ponda taluka.

Opa water works that supplies around 152 million litres per day (MLD) of water to Ponda and Tiswadi talukas consists of five separate water treatment plants, including 8 MLD, 12 MLD, 54 MLD, 40 MLD, and 27 MLD plants.

WRD has been pumping water from Vedanta’s mining pit at Codli and Zarapkar mine pit at Satone Dabal, both in Dharbandora. Altogether 30 million litres per day (MLD) of water is being pumped into Khandepar river every day, Badami said.

The water crisis is perennial as the river level declines during summer, forcing WRD to make arrangements for pumping water from the mining pits by hiring pumps and other equipment. This was normally done only if the water level of Khandepar river dips below 2.5m. However, this year, the exercise started at the beginning of May as the water loss during summer was substantial and efforts are on to maintain the river level at Opa, Pramod Badami WRD chief engineer, said.

Around 30 MLD of water was being pumped from the Codli mining pit in addition to the 70 MLD water from Ganjem river and 48 MLD water from Selaulim dam.