Evaluation of Groundwater Development Prospects in Kadalundi River Basin

Evaluation of groundwater development prospects has been done with river basin as the unit. The study has been carried out in the Kadalundi Basin in Malappuram district of Kerala state, India. The pattern of water level fluctuation in different physiographic regions, the depth to water level and saturated thickness in different seasons, the hydrogeological properties of the rocks within the basin, the groundwater assessment, the groundwater quality, etc, were studied. All these were integrated to evaluate the groundwater condition in the river basin in terms of groundwater potential, present draft and future groundwater development prospects. The annual groundwater availability has been estimated as 108 MCM and the gross annual groundwater draft has been estimated as 44.7 MCM for the Kadalundi Basin. The stage of groundwater development has been computed as 41%. There is no significant rise or fall of water levels during both the pre-Monsoon and post-Monsoon intervals in the basin. Considering the stage of development and the trend of water levels, it has been categorised that the Kadalundi Basin is 'SAFE' for future groundwater development.