Adopted structures by Water Conservation Mission
The following structures are in adoption to create the additional filling space and recharge of additional ground water.
- 61656; Continuous contour trenching, continuous peripheral contour trenching, staggered trenching.
- 61656; Gully control works.
- 61656; Check dams and percolation tanks, farm ponds, bunding, sunken pits, feeder channels, supply channels.
- 61656; Desiltation of tanks, restoration of tanks etc.
In addition to these, certain districts are involved in the revival of age-old traditional water conservation practices such as:
- The revival of age-old chain of tank systems in Srikakulam district.
- Conversion of dried up dug wells as recharge pits through simple diversion drain techniques and
- Installation of low cost sunken pits In the Medak District as recommended by the Technical Committee wing of the WCM.
Progress of 'Neeru-Meeru'
During the first three phases, an additional filling space of 3068.54 La. m3 has been created with an amount of Rs. 654.22 crores. During the Fourth phase, by 12-5-2002, an additional filling space of 3478.45 La. m3 was created with an amount of Rs. 473.79 crores.
Though the government is attempting to estimate the impact of 'Neeru-Meeru' based on ground water levels and drinking water scarcity status, there is a need for evolving scientific impact assessment procedures for evaluation of the impact of 'Neeru-Meeru' works. Remarkable development in Remote Sensing and GIS and their applications in natural resources development and management have amply demonstrated and firmly established their immense potential in bringing about a transformation in the life style of the human society as a whole. Hence application of Remote Sensing and GIS particularly in carrying out impact analysis of a massive programme like 'Neeru-Meeru', plays a crucial role in developing scientific performance indicators for the evaluation of completed/ executed water conservative works.
Model Pilot Study
With this background, an attempt is made to carry out a pilot study by selecting a
Semi arid, rain-fed drainage basin, where the government has executed considerable number of soil and water conservation activities under Neeru-Meeru programme. For this purpose, Vemuleru Watershed bearing national watershed code number: 4C4C7 as per the National Watershed Atlas is taken up as a case study.
Objectives
From the available report of Neeru-Meeru programme it is clear that the Government of Andhra Pradesh are yet evolve any scientific parameters to make systematic impact assessment of this program. Significant time has elapsed since the inception of the programme (N-M) to evolve scientific parameters so as to evaluate critically the impact of 6546.99 lac. Cum. of additional filling space created with the incurrence of Rs. 1128 crores of public money. Keeping all this in view, a systematic study is carried out with the following objectives
- To develop scientific parameters like land use/land cover status, hydrogeomorphological conditions and normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) based on the analysis of Remotely sensed satellite data and its integration on GIS platform.
- To develop a comparative land use/land cover status of the selected watershed covering the years 1997 and 2001 keeping in view of the status of pre and post launching of Neeru-Meeru programme.