Environmentalists have asked the Coimbatore Corporation to extend the rainwater harvesting campaign and programmes to include defunct wells in the city. They have also asked the civic body to shun its plans to use the wells to dump debris.
The Corporation had in the past identified vacant lands and defunct wells across the city to be used as debris dumping spots. It gave the public and builders a list of places where they could dump debris and said that the move was aimed at not transporting the waste to the Vellalore yard and simplify the process of waste management as when the debris mixed with the waste, it became to difficult to segregate and process the same.
The Corporation also said that if people were found dumping debris outside the designated places, it would not hesitate to action penal action and fine the violators.
A case in point was the well in Annai Indira Nagar in Ward 97, said environment activist Umesh Marudachalam. The Corporation announcement only hastened the process of closure of wells as people had half-filled the well with waste.
If only the Corporation had not announced the well as a debris dumping site and cleaned it instead, it could have been an excellent rainwater recharge initiative.
R. Palanisamy, a 65-year-old resident, said that the well had copious water until a few years and helped maintain the ground water level in the area. Once when rainwater entered the well and the water turned dirty, people started dumping waste and then finally debris.
He added that after the closure of the well, the water level had gone down so rapidly that a borewell dug as recently as a week ago could not find water even at 900 feet. When the well had water, the residents obtained groundwater in less than 100 feet.
K. Mylswamy of Siruthuli said that it would be an excellent idea to convert the defunct wells into rainwater harvesting structures. A two or three stage filtering mechanism should also be built to ensure that only clean water flowed in.
Corporation Commissioner G. Latha said that the Corporation did announce the use of defunct wells for debris dumping but immediately gave up the plan. It did not dump debris in any of the 15-plus wells it identified.
She added that the Corporation would consider the suggestion to use those as recharge structures.
