Borewells gone dry, what next?
- Feb 18, 2024
Contributor,
Ganesh Shanbhag,
Software Engineer by Profession,
EcoFriend by passion!!
Ganesh Shanbhag,
Software Engineer by Profession,
EcoFriend by passion!!
Wherever you go around in Bengaluru, you can hear the sound of borewell rig. Right? Every sq km of Bengaluru has at least one ongoing borewell drilling. And yes, no authority cares about it. But why this situation?. None of the authorities know how many borewells exist in Bengaluru city. Official data from BWSSB says around 10000. But can you believe that there are just 10000 borewells?
Rampant corruption, haphazard planning has led to this help less state of our beautiful city. Historically in the 1970s and 80s, borewells used to be at a depth of 100 ft which over the course of time has increased to 3000 ft. Whatever water is coming out from these depts is known as ‘Fossil Water’. This water entered the earth crust over 1000 years ago, so it is called Fossil water. Unfortunately, Fossil Water can’t be easily recharged. Also, for insights, everyone drills a borewell, no one even bothers to recharge it. If the borewell dries up, the immediate solution is to drill another one or deepen the existing one, but no thoughts on recharging. This is the harsh reality of our city and its citizens’ mentality.
So, what should be done? Unless groundwater is explicitly recharged, the aquifers wont receive water due to rampant concretization of our city. Except for last year, the previous 3 years Bengaluru saw over 1500 mm of rains and all the rain water entered drains but did not go to ground. Rain water is the purest form of water which we can ever receive. The rain water running through surfaces should be sent to a Soak Pit/ Recharge well (Shown in picture) for recharging. A recharge well is basically an open well with concrete ring reinforcement and when water enters into it, it creates a standing water column which exerts enormous pressure on cracks in aquifers and water gushes into them. It can be constructed anywhere and preferably near borewells.
Bengaluru has 40-50 rainy days in a calendar year and these wells work really well for the groundwater recharging. There are few other ways of recharging too, that’s for the next article 🙂
Rampant corruption, haphazard planning has led to this help less state of our beautiful city. Historically in the 1970s and 80s, borewells used to be at a depth of 100 ft which over the course of time has increased to 3000 ft. Whatever water is coming out from these depts is known as ‘Fossil Water’. This water entered the earth crust over 1000 years ago, so it is called Fossil water. Unfortunately, Fossil Water can’t be easily recharged. Also, for insights, everyone drills a borewell, no one even bothers to recharge it. If the borewell dries up, the immediate solution is to drill another one or deepen the existing one, but no thoughts on recharging. This is the harsh reality of our city and its citizens’ mentality.
So, what should be done? Unless groundwater is explicitly recharged, the aquifers wont receive water due to rampant concretization of our city. Except for last year, the previous 3 years Bengaluru saw over 1500 mm of rains and all the rain water entered drains but did not go to ground. Rain water is the purest form of water which we can ever receive. The rain water running through surfaces should be sent to a Soak Pit/ Recharge well (Shown in picture) for recharging. A recharge well is basically an open well with concrete ring reinforcement and when water enters into it, it creates a standing water column which exerts enormous pressure on cracks in aquifers and water gushes into them. It can be constructed anywhere and preferably near borewells.
Bengaluru has 40-50 rainy days in a calendar year and these wells work really well for the groundwater recharging. There are few other ways of recharging too, that’s for the next article 🙂
