Borewells fail to serve purpose

workers repairing a defunct borewell 

The indiscriminate digging up borewells has failed to benefit the people this summer despite the government spending vast amounts of money on this exercise every summer.

The majority of borewells have gone dry, but they benefit the drilling rig machine contractors. Government officials have been sanctioning borewells, indiscriminately violating the norms of the WALTA Act-2002.

The success rate of getting water with digging a borewell is small, with the efforts mostly going waste or yield little water.

Officials concerned claims that they were supplying drinking water in tractors to 110 villages facing acute drinking water problem in the district. The RWS officials have taken few local agriculture wells on rent to supply drinking water to the people in the villages facing severe drinking water problem.     

“Digging borewells has become a boon for drilling rig machine contractors and local political leaders but there is no much benefit to the people who continue to suffer without water to drink,” he pointed out.

Digging of borewells is high in Nirmal division and that too in the mandals along the river Godavari. Recently, ministers promised the ZPTCs sanction of 20 borewells each mandal.

The majority of borewells dig up in the past become defunct with the minor repairs and due to drastic fall in the ground water table and some of the borewells giving some water after flushing. Some of the farmers digging up borewells in the Godavari river shore to give water to agriculture and use drinking water purposes.

There are many villages in Dilawarpur mandal where indiscriminate digging of borewells takes place every summer season, with some of the villagers digging up to a depth even of 400 feet deep to get water, but not succeeding as the ground water table has fallen drastically.

Atram Jalimsha, sarpanch of Pangidi village in Sirpur (U) mandal, said that the state government should focus on creating a permanent water source to meet the people’s drinking water needs instead of putting large sums of money into digging borewells. 

Rs 24 crore released under14th Finance Commission to the district, and the amount would be re-distributed to 866-gram panchayats in the district. The funds will be used to mitigate drinking water problem.

The RWS officials sent Rs 28 crore proposals to the state government to take measures including de-siltation of wells and flushing, cleaning borewells to ease the drinking water problem in the district.

Agriculture wells turn lifeline in tribal areas

Adivasis fetching water  from a well in Kakarboddi

The Agriculture wells have become a life saver for the people in the rural areas especially in tribal areas in the hot summer and in the wake of depleted groundwater table as they are only drinking water sources now quenching the thirst of the people, unlike borewells.

People are depending on the agriculture wells while a majority of the borewells dried up and were defunct.

Even RWS is getting water from the Agriculture wells and supplying to the people in some villages. There is a need to encourage digging of agriculture wells on a big scale to retain the rainwater and use them during summer.

The success rate of the Agriculture wells is high when compared to borewells and it evident with most of the Agriculture wells quenching the thirst of the people in interior areas.

There is still water in the wells in Pangidi village in Sirpur (U) even in the prevailing successive drought conditions and same within Kakarboddi village.

Most of Kolam, Gond Adivasi of and non-tribals of interior areas are collecting water in plastic and iron drums from the Agriculture wells while borewells serving no purpose.

Sarpanch of Pangidi Atram Jalimsha said Agriculture wells have become more useful than the borewells and observed the most of the borewells has gone dry much before the onset of the summer, unlike wells.

He said the indiscriminate digging of borewells is not serving any purpose without taking measures for rainwater harvesting.

Sidam Laxmi Bai of Kakarboddi said that “the entire village is depending on the agriculture well for drinking water and other purposes.”

In a recent survey, the ITDA, Utnoor has identified that still people are depending on streams and rivulets for drinking water in 133 villages in Tribal areas and there is severe drinking water problem in 28 out of total 52 mandals in the district.

The district received 818.01 mm rainfall this year against the district normal rainfall 1,157 mm and the groundwater table has gone down to -1.48 feet deep further when compared to corresponding period February of last year in the district.