In times of drought, the residents of north Chennai will soon be forced to share water from their borewells, to help facilitate tunnelling work for the Chennai Metro Rail project .
At present, tunnelling work has started for phase I extension of Chennai Metro Rail project that runs from Washermanpet to Wimco Nagar. Since a part of the project is underground from Washermanpet to Korukkupet, the tunnelling work started a few weeks ago. Usually, before the tunnelling work is carried out, the borewells falling within the alignment of tunnelling are closed.
The residents have the choice to get compensation for the closed borewell, or they could get Chennai Metro Rail drill a new one for them.
According to sources in Chennai Metro Rail project, this plan came up for those houses located in narrow streets where some residents were unwilling to receive compensation for closing their existing borewells. “Even water tankers cannot ply through them; so we decided, about 3-4 household will share a borewell. The residents also agreed to the plan. The borewell will be located at a common point. This plan will continue till the time tunnelling is completed in the area,” an official said.
Experts note, during drought, plans such as these will greatly help in using groundwater efficiently.
M. Soundararajan, former hydrogeologist at Chennai Metrowater said, “Some of the apartments in the city also have such measures in place. But it is a great idea to put it in use for independent households. If picked the right location with the right depth, it would work really well.”
Indumathi M. Nambi, environmental and water resources professor at IIT Madras said, on an average, each person consumes about 165 litres of water a day. In areas like north Chennai, good quality groundwater can be found between 80 feet to 100 feet; if they go beyond that, then there may be interference of saline water, she said. “Such plans must be carried out in villages too as it will greatly help farmers. The small time farmers suffer quite a bit as the open wells dry up, especially when some household nearby drills a borewell too deep. If this is carried out, then it will benefit several of them,” Ms. Nambi added.
But one thing that needs supervision is, the residents will have to be given separate meters to ensure there is no dispute, she said.
