As Visakhapatnam rises skyward, groundwater sinks in Yendada-Madhurawada corridor

On the surface, the situation appears reassuring. The Yeleru reservoir remains well stocked, Godavari water continues to supplement Visakhapatnam’s supply, and officials say there is no immediate threat to municipal drinking water. Beneath the ground, however, another story is unfolding.

Groundwater levels have fallen sharply across several of the city’s fastest-growing neighbourhoods, where apartment towers, gated communities and commercial developments have turned what were once peri-urban villages into dense residential corridors. Experts warn that unless urban planning, groundwater recharge and water supply keep pace with development, dependence on borewells and tanker water will keep rising.

Data from the Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Information and Management System (APWRIMS) shows that some of the city’s fastest-growing localities record among the deepest groundwater levels. As on July 2, 2026, groundwater stood at 31.69 metres below ground level (mbgl) in Arilova, 28.73 mbgl in Yendada, 27.23 mbgl in Madhurawada, 23.12 mbgl in Peda Rushikonda, 16.52 mbgl at YSR Park, 14.54 mbgl in Visalakshinagar and 11.72 mbgl in Marikavalasa.

District-wide APWRIMS data also shows groundwater stress across several mandals. Visakhapatnam (Rural) recorded an average groundwater level of 20.43 mbgl, followed by Maharanipeta (9.97 mbgl), Anandapuram (9.38 mbgl), Gajuwaka (8.88 mbgl), Visakhapatnam Urban (8.79 mbgl) and Pendurthi (8.51 mbgl).

Yendada the most vulnerable pocket

According to K. Pushpa Latha, Visakhapatnam District Ground Water Officer, the department’s manual monitoring has consistently found Yendada to be the district’s most stressed locality.

“Our latest manual readings show that Yendada is the most critically affected area in the district. The groundwater level there has fallen to 30.37 metres (about 100 feet) below ground level,” she said.

While borewells of 250 to 270 feet are generally adequate in the area, builders increasingly drill to 400 to 500 feet, adding to the pressure on aquifers. “When one property drills a much deeper borewell, groundwater is diverted towards it. As a result, neighbouring shallow borewells dry up much faster,” Ms. Pushpa Latha said.

The department receives complaints every summer from residents whose older borewells fail after nearby construction projects begin drilling deeper wells.

A city turning into concrete jungle

For Ananda Gajapathi, Head of the Department of Geophysics at Andhra University, the reasons behind the decline are straightforward. “Urbanisation is the primary reason. Water consumption has gone up, but groundwater recharge has not kept pace.”

He said every new road, apartment complex and parking area reduced the land available for rainwater to seep in. “As more land is covered with concrete, rainwater can no longer soak into the soil. Instead, it flows away as surface runoff. Once an area becomes urbanised, infiltration declines sharply.”

The consequences extend beyond groundwater depletion. “When recharge declines, even moderate rainfall results in higher runoff, raising the likelihood of flash flooding.”

He added that the problem was spreading beyond the city. “Real estate development in rural areas is also cutting recharge. Land is levelled and compacted before layouts are developed, reducing the soil’s capacity to absorb rainwater.”

Reservoirs remain healthy, but local shortages persist

Despite the groundwater decline, officials stress that Visakhapatnam is not facing an immediate drinking water crisis. The city draws water from the Yeleru reservoir, the Godavari river, the Tatipudi reservoir and the Raiwada reservoir. Carry-over storage from last year’s monsoon has ensured adequate supplies ahead of this year’s peak rainfall season.

Yet groundwater stress is increasingly reflected in the demand for tanker water. According to D. Murali Krishna, Executive Engineer (Water Supply and UGD), GVMC, the Yendada-Madhurawada corridor has grown much faster than planners expected. “The new gated communities comprise between 1,000 and 2,000 dwelling units, and their water requirement has grown much faster than the supporting network,” he said.

Water tanker demand peaked at 400 to 500 trips a day during the summer before falling to 350 to 400 trips following recent rainfall. Under normal conditions, the city records about 250 tanker trips a day.

Municipal supply itself has remained stable, he said. The shortage arises because many households supplement municipal supply with borewells that dry up during summer. The immediate deficit in the northern suburbs is about 10 million litres a day (MLD).

Mr. Murali Krishna said GVMC was already supplying about 20 MLD to the Yendada-Madhurawada corridor through the existing network. But the rapid growth of large gated communities had created an immediate shortfall of about 10 MLD. To bridge the gap, GVMC has proposed a 65 MLD water supply scheme, designed to meet the projected demand for the next 25 to 30 years.

Planning beyond supply

Officials and experts agree that adding to supply alone will not solve the problem.

“The biggest drawback in Visakhapatnam’s water supply system is the lack of adequate storage,” Mr. Murali Krishna said, advocating for dedicated reservoirs able to store about 5 TMC of drinking water and suggesting that government land could be set aside for the purpose to strengthen the city’s long-term water security. He added that urban services should be built alongside new housing.

The Ground Water Department has also begun work under the State government’s Jaladhara programme, a 100-day action plan to improve groundwater recharge and water security. Ms. Pushpa Latha said 135 villages in Visakhapatnam district, where groundwater levels had fallen beyond 6 metres, had been identified for recharge measures, including 96 rural villages, with departments coordinating the desilting of tanks and other conservation works.

She believes rooftop rainwater harvesting remains the quickest long-term answer. “Although recharge pits are mandatory under GVMC building rules, they are poorly enforced. Only if individual property owners capture the rainwater falling on their own premises can we meaningfully improve groundwater levels,” she said.

Krishnamurthy Somayajula, a Visakhapatnam-based consultant engineer specialising in infrastructure and fire safety, said civic services had not kept pace with the city’s vertical growth. “Bulk water pipelines, sewerage networks and drainage systems require periodic inspection and maintenance. Large gated communities should also undergo periodic infrastructure audits to ensure that water supply, drainage and other essential services remain adequate as residential development continues to expand,” he said.

For a city whose skyline continues to rise, the challenge now lies beneath the surface. Experts say Visakhapatnam’s long-term water security will depend not merely on finding new water sources, but on protecting groundwater through better planning, widespread rainwater harvesting, adequate storage and services that grow in step with the city.