Online search for borewells triples, thanks to acute water scarcity across state

The study was conducted by digital platform Sulekha. A Sulekha release on Tuesday said India has faced nearly 20 per cent rainfall deficiency since the beginning of this year and many states were reeling under acute water shortage resulting in three-fold increase in online searches for borewells.

This study is based on visits and searches by nearly 11,000 consumers that landed on Sulekha in April 2019, across cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. The study revealed that the top three cities with the highest number of borewells search growth have been Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.

Consumers were, however, willing to spend the most for borewells in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Gurgaon, indicating a need to go deeper to source water. They were also willing to spend an average of Rs 1.7 lakh, an increase of 25 per cent in two years.

Since local borewell contractors were not able to meet the demand due to heat and shortage of manpower, consumers were increasingly looking for digitally reviewed experts.

The study showed that lack of regular water supply from most Municipal corporations also contribute to the rise for borewell services and the consumers were asking for an average of 140 feet of borewell depth as against just 100 feet in 2017. Many consumers think that government agencies should raise awareness among residents about the borewells depth, that suit different areas and soil formations.