Defunct borewells closed in Coimbatore district

The Coimbatore district administration has closed defunct borewells or converted to rainwater harvesting wells.

According to senior officials, the administration started the process this year at the special ‘Gram Sabha’ meetings held on January 26.

Agenda

Closure of such borewells was included as an agenda in the meetings for discussion at the village-level.

This led to the identification of 512 borewells in the district. Of those, 502 were in the village panchayat, seven in town panchayat and three in municipalities.

The number included borewells that did not belong to the government.

Of the 502 in village panchayat, 322 were closed. The remaining 180 were converted into rainwater harvesting structures. Those in town panchayats and municipalities were also closed.

The district administration did not stop with that, though.

Meeting

It had also convened a meeting of rig operators to tell them the precautionary measures to be adopted while completing work. It would hold a follow-up meeting in the next few days.

The administration had also instructed local bodies to collect details of those digging borewells and ask rig operators to inform the local bodies at least 10 days in advance in this regard.