Newly rejuvenated open wells help meet water demand during crisis in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Amid the water crisis in Bengaluru, close to 500 families in Kanteerava Nagar near Nandini Layout have been able to get water for non-potable purposes from a newly rejuvenated open well in the area. 

The well provides close to one lakh litres of water a day. This success story has proven that traditional open wells, tapping into shallow aquifers, are a reliable water source for the city. 

Over the last year, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which is the nodal agency, in association with the Biome Environmental Trust, has rejuvenated five such open wells that had become defunct. Two wells near Avalahalli Lake, two wells close to Kothanur Lake and another in Kanteerava Nagar are among the wells that have been rejuvenated. 

The wells were rejuvenated by desilting and cleaning since many of them had turned into garbage dump spots. The team also removed any vegetation and then installed grilles and pulleys to extract water. While the water from the well in Kanteerava Nagar is supplied to the families close by, water from other wells is also being used by the local communities. 

The traditional open wells tap into the shallow aquifers that do not run very deep like the borewells. 

"The layer just below the top layer of the soil is like a sponge which holds on to water. This layer is called a shallow aquifer and open wells tap into it. The rejuvenation was taken up under the shallow aquifer management project which is in progress across many cities," explained S Vishwanath, Advisor, Biome Environmental Trust. These wells also act as recharge structures to help the percolation of rainwater during the monsoon. 

“The use of traditional methods to source water will help us bring down the demand and stress on Cauvery water and borewells. We need to adopt such methods to ensure water security,” said Suma Rao, project manager from Biome. 

Biome is a technical partner in a pilot project on shallow aquifer management across 10 cities — Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur, Kolkata, Dhanbad,  Pune, Gwalior, Rajkot and Thane. The project has been taken up by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT 2.0).