Dip in groundwater level compounds crisis

  The Department of Mines and Geology has found that the water level at 12 different places has depreciated thereby aggravating the water problem.

Also, the disparity in water supply is not limited to areas that receive Cauvery water in the City. It extends to even areas where people depend on groundwater.

In the City’s core areas where the BWSSB water distribution network exists, water can be drawn from a depth of just five meters. But on the City’s outskirts, water is not available even at a depth of 50 metre. Residents in these areas do not even receive Cauvery water also, leaving them high and dry.

Fall in the level

A borewell in Kalkere (K R Puram) had water at a depth of 60.2 metre in February this year, but the water level dipped to 65 metre in March. A fall of 4.8 metre in the water level. Similarly in Laggere, the water level of a borewell had dipped by by 4.48 metre over the same period.

An official from the Department of Mines and Geology said the borwells at 12 different places in the City where the recordings were done, are meant only for study purpose and water is not drawn from them.

“These are recordings done at a particular time and particular day of the month can vary from time to time. There might be an overuse of other borewells located close to these borewells, leading to a fall in water levels. But the groundwater dynamics can never be recorded accurately,” he said.

Groundwater has dipped to alarming levels in many other parched areas too. Ironically, while the Bill on groundwater regulation has been passed in the legislature (rules yet to be framed), the government is promising more borewells to the citizens.