Water woes lessen: June-August rainfall raises city groundwater table by 0.5 m

During the month of June, when there was no significant rain, the average groundwater level was at 7.77 metres and in July, the average level has reduced to 7.28 metres.

Among the 15 zones in the city, the water level in Anna Nagar has increased by 1.19 metres, which is the highest. In June, Anna Nagar’s groundwater level was at 7.86 metres and in July, the level reduced to 6.67 metres. The Metrowater has several observation wells (open wells) across the city to measure the groundwater levels every month. However, the groundwater table in Kodambakkam zone remained the same for two months as the level went down by a mere six millimetres. In July, Kodambakkam had groundwater level at 8.37 metres. From June 1 to August 10, the city has received 251 mm rainfall, which is 15 per cent higher than the average rainfall of 218 mm.

“For several years, we have been depending upon borewells as my house is in the tail-end area, where water pressure in Metrowater pipe is low. When the borewells went dry, we struggled to meet our water demands and started booking tanker lorries. Now, my borewell is working for nearly a week. I ration the available water to my tenants,” Senthil Kumar, a house owner in Choolaimedu, said.

Meanwhile, the bookings for tanker water supply through ‘Dial for Water’ scheme has come down since the last week of July that coincides with the introduction of the new ‘Dial for Water’ scheme. Earlier, the water managers were struggling to supply tanker lorry water to the residents. A Metrowater official said that they were receiving around 4,000 bookings every day but managed to deliver only around 2,500 loads of water. The Metrowater also had a huge backlog of around 40,000 bookings. “Even though, we have allotted 2,100 bookings per day in the new scheme, we receive around 1,300 to 1,400 bookings. This has made our job easier,” the official added.