Open wells may be Chennai’s solution to water crisis

Rain Centre emphasises that both the Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) systems and open wells have the potential to effectively rechargegroundwater.

The founder of the organisation, Sekhar Raghavan said, “Open wells provide us good quality of water over the ones sourced from the borewells. The total dissolved salt content is much higher in the borewells. Thereby, the water becomes heavier and found in the deeper layers of the earth.”

So far, the Centre has built nearly 30 open wells across the city. Rain Center has constructed such wells at the several places such as Alwarpet, Nungambakkam, Mylapore and Abhiramipuram.

In contrast to the RWH system, open wells recharge the deeper water sources and provide a long-lasting solution to the city’s water problems. Open wells in the city started disappearing with new residential complexes made inroads.

“Chennai lost many of its open wells when builders covered them up while constructing buildings upon it. The groundwater is stored beneath the surface in two layers which is separated by a hard rock. Our ancestors had only tapped the upper layer of the water resources and utilised it. Later, the people started drilling borewells to exploit the deepest layer of the resource. Later, we realised that the first layer gets rejuvenated with the spell of rains,” Raghavan said.

This model of recharging groundwater, however, is not suitable in every terrain. Raghavan said, “This system cannot be replicated from Adambakkam to Vandalur as it is not a rocky terrain. Here, the only solution is to drill borewells.”