Even as a long and dry summer looms ahead, the Tiruchi Corporation has decided to sink five additional deep borewells on the Cauvery River bed to meet the drinking water requirements of the city in the coming months.
The giant borewells would be sunk around the Kambarasampettai Head Works, one of the city’s main drinking water sources. Work on sinking the borewells is expected to commence shortly after the tender process is completed. The Corporation Council, at a recent meeting, has approved the sinking of five borewells at Kambarasampettai at an investment of Rs.55 lakhs.
Over the last six to seven years, the Corporation had sunk a series of borewells around the collector wells of the water schemes feeding the city from the Cauvery River. As many as 21 borewells have been sunk over the years around the Kambarasampettai Head Works.
ADVERTISEMENT
Given the failure of monsoon last year and the poor water storage position at the Mettur Reservoir, the Cauvery River had gone dry over the past month and the yield has already started to dip in about a dozen of the 21 borewells at Kambarasampettai, Corporation sources indicated. An official resolution tabled at the council on the subject pointed out that the borewells have been contributing up to 30 million litres of water a day. Since December end, when the flow in the Cauvery dwindled, the groundwater table has gone down considerably. As the water table goes down further, the borewells could turn dry. To ensure uninterrupted water supply during the summer, the sinking of additional borewells has become necessary, it said.
The release of about 2.44 tmcft of water (as per the Supreme Court directive) to meet the irrigation requirement of standing crops in the delta is expected give a wetting of the water sources. However, this is expected to give some relief only for a short period. As the summer progresses, water managers in the city could have their hands full.