Old wells being rejuvenated to meet water crisis in Bidar

Seventy of the 170 public wells identified have been dredged and cleaned

Clean-up Crew:Nirmiti Kendra workers cleaning an old well in Ashtur in Bidar. The well is yielding water now.— photo: gopichand t.

The district administration has started a project to preserve old open wells in public places in order to push up the aquifer and protect the ancient legacy of water management.

The severe drought conditions of the year have pushed the officials to clean the wells, some of which are around 500 years old. Many of them were being used as garbage dumps after they dried up over the years.

According to the city heritage management report, the entire city was being fed by these open wells a few decades ago. This is because the city stands on a layer of basalt rock on which is a 70-ft-high layer of permeable laterite rock. The gap between these rocky layers has a network of innumerable water-carrying lineaments.

“Reusing traditional water systems will prove to be a sustainable method in the long term,’’ said Anurag Tewari, Deputy Commissioner. “By bringing back the traditional methods, we are replenishing the water table. We are trying to wean away people from the practice of drilling borewells by making them realise that water is available at 70 feet.”

The project, taken up by the Nirmiti Kendra in association with the NGO ‘Team Yuva’, has succeeded in cleaning and dredging 70 of 170 public wells identified in the city. Of them, at least half are yielding water now, officials said.

“Most wells were at the ground level. We are, therefore, building parapet walls around them, and covering them with a thick wire mesh. We are putting up boards near them asking people not to throw waste inside,’’ said Mohammad Omar, an engineer with the Kendra.

“Every well that has got water is being treated as a mini water supply scheme. A cistern is being put up beside it, with a submersible pump lowered into the well. The cistern is filled once every two days and families in the surrounding areas can collect water from here,’’ City Municipal Council (CMC) Commissioner B. Basappa told The Hindu .

“Hydrologists have informed that every one cubic metre of digging into the water table is yielding 901 litres of water. Thus, the rejuvenation of old wells has yielded over four lakh litres of water till now,” said Vinay Malge, convenor of Team Yuva. “At least 20 of the wells have so much water that heavy duty pumps are pushing out around 20,000 litres of water an hour. This is, in turn, being supplied to houses through mini water supply systems or through pipelines,” he said.

CMC has no data on the actual number of wells in the city. Based on the number of families that use tap water, they estimate that the city, which has around 22,000 housing units, has around 5,000 private wells and 300 public wells. There are more vintage wells in the old city area. All the public wells in both parts will be rejuvenated, Mr. Tewari said.