Water level goes up in Baidarbettu’s wells

The water in a small pond increased by one-and-a-half feet in a week in Baidarbettu.

Water level in about 30 wells in Baidarbettu near Parkala went up in the last 10 days, much to the amazement of the residents here. But, geologists say that it is not an unusual phenomenon.

Baidarbettu is located between Manipal and Parkala. Water level normally goes down here in peak summer. Water sprung up even in a small pond, which had gone dry in December. It attracted curious onlookers too.

Most of the houses in this area do not have municipal water connection. They depend on wells for drinking water and to water coconut and arecanut plantations.

Shantha Nayak, homemaker, said the water level in her well, which had almost gone dry, started increasing in the last 10 days. The water in the pond behind her house had increased by about one-and-a-half ft.

“During summer, I used to go to my neighbour’s house to get water from her well. Water level in the pond too has gone up. We use sticks to measure the water-level,” she said.

Soumya Nayak, another homemaker, said she first noticed the increase in the water level in her well 10 days ago. Her neighbours too had a similar experience. “The pond used to dry up by December and used to get water only in June with the onset of monsoon. Some say that a broken municipal water pipeline must have led to the increase in water level,” she said.

But Srikanth Rao, Commissioner of Udupi City Municipal Council, said he had got all the pipelines checked and none of them had broken or had any leakage.

H.N. Udayashankar, Professor in Geology, Department of Civil Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, visited the area on Friday and collected the water samples from there. “We analysed the water samples. It is safe,” he said.

Then, what explains the increase in the water-level in the wells? Prof. Udayashankar said it could be fault zone readjustment in the layers of earth. The area came under a major fault zone and there was lot of water potential in the area. A few years ago, people used to collect water from the wells in the area and supply it to Udupi and Manipal, a fact testified by Mr. Sridhar Nayak also.

“I think the water availability may remain permanently in the area. They may get more water during the monsoon,” he added.