Even as the administration predictably promised a campaign to close all open borewells after incident in Junjarwad village, the root cause for such mishaps has been sidelined. It is the land owners’ plan to reduce the loss incurred on a failed borewell that ultimately poses a threat to toddlers who fall into the death traps.
In the total cost of getting a borewell sunk, the cost of the casing pipe is a major component. And especially in the case of a failed borewell, the owner tends to recover the loss by selling the casing pipes back to the borewell company or other farmers who want to get borewells sunk.
What it costs
A galvanized iron (GI) pipe costs around ₹270 per sq ft and if the length of casing pipes required is about 100 ft, that would come to ₹27,000 while the drilling cost would be around ₹15,000. The problem is that, after recovering a part of the money, the owners tend to neglect the safety aspect while closing them.
Hardly a few in the business lay the conditions that casing pipes will not be removed in case of failed borewells. If casing pipes are not removed, then it is easier to close them using a cap. Although the mud around a failed borewell is used to close it, it is not done properly leading to the borewell opening up again.
Only a few companies refuse to remove the casing. Mehaboob Pasha of Venkateshwara Borewells is among them. “We begin work only after getting the owner’s consent that we will not remove casing pipes,” Mr. Pasha said. According to him, if casing pipes are not removed, such incidents are unlikely to occur.
Another matter of concern is that while the permission of the Department of Mines and Geology is necessary for sinking a borewell, the authorities maintain blissful ignorance about what happens afterwards and there is no data maintained. “If they monitor failed borewells, then such instances will not happen,” said the owner of another borewell company.
