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Residents in many places in Chennai city dig new bore wells
Posted on: 20/Mar/2019 10:12:43 AM
Dry open wells and depleting levels of ground water!! Who would have thought that Chennai would be facing these above mentioned problems now?
The main reason for these issues was due to failure of monsoons and therefore Chennai city could not get sufficient water. When compared to 2018, the groundwater levels in many places in Chennai city like West Mambalam, Nungambakkam, T. Nagar, Royapettah, Triplicane, Ambattur, Avadi, Tambaram, Pallavaram, Alandur, Madipakkam, Adambakkam, Ullagaram and Puzhuthivakkam are affected badly now and the residents in these places are facing huge issues.
The shocking piece of information now is the water level that was 150 ft to 200 ft in these above places have gone down to 400 ft in most areas. The groundwater is available at 7000 ft in the southern suburbs. Supply of metro water or from Palar comes down in the suburbs in the summer season. Since January 2019, the supply of metro water has been reduced to once a week in the suburbs and this was as per the statement of an official belonging to the department of metro water.
According to Mr. J. Saravanan, hydrogeologist, to tide over the water shortage many small apartment complexes and households usually draw water from the open wells. In this season this won’t be possible as the wells have dried up and the residents are forced to dig new bore wells for water. Even by digging bore wells, residents are not assured of water supply.
He pointed out that places like Guindy, Alandur, Chromepet and Pallavaram etc have a hard rock aquifer. The amazing information gathered is residents have dug bore wells in these places at a depth of 700 ft for the sake of water. The term ‘Hallow aquifer zones’ has been given to these places mentioned above as these areas are not capable of giving much water. It must be noted that aquifers in Central Chennai having alluvial soil once yielded water inside 25m and these have become dry now.
Hydrogeologist Mr. Saravanan later explained about how few places like Valasarawakkam, Alwartirunagar, Virugambakkam, Porur and parts of Mylapore have alluvial aquifers with water.
Till 2018 water was available at a depth of 250 ft in places like Kodambakkam, Nungambakkam and Royapettah etc but now the residents are digging down to a depth of 400 ft for the sake of water. The residents who have dug to depths of 200 ft last year in places like Nanganallur, Adambakkam, Madipakkam etc have dug till 500 ft now.
