The Hindu              01.02.2014

No more deepening of borewells beyond a point: Mayor

Even as the severe water scarcity which is gripping
different parts of Vellore dominated the proceedings of the monthly
ordinary meeting of the Vellore Corporation Council here on Friday,
Vellore Mayor P. Karthiyayini indicated that the Corporation had decided
against the practice of drilling new public borewells or deepening
existing borewells beyond the depth at which water is available.

The
Mayor made the statement in response to the demand from various
councillors for deepening borewells wherever the groundwater table had
depleted. She said that the drilling of new borewells or deepening of
existing borewells beyond the depth at which water is available would
lead to the depletion of groundwater in that area as well as in the
vicinity, leading to greater water scarcity. Therefore, wherever the
Corporation’s borewells have gone dry, the Corporation has decided to
construct sumps or install high density poly-ethylene (HDPE) tanks and
fill them with water transported through the Corporation’s water
tankers.

S. Raja (DMK), 38th ward member objected to
the proposal of linking the Ponnai scheme with the Allapuram-Thorappadi
Combined Drinking Water Scheme under which water is supplied to the
added areas of Allapuram and Thorappadi (erstwhile town panchayats),
since Vellore is reeling under water scarcity.

Janaki,
Commissioner of the Corporation said that it was not proper on the part
of councillors to object to the linking of the Ponnai scheme to the
pipelines supplying water to Allapuram and Thorappadi since these two
erstwhile town panchayats have been annexed with Vellore Corporation and
they too were reeling under water scarcity. Vellore Corporation is
dependent on water supplied from the head works in Eraivankadu, a
village which is outside the jurisdiction of Vellore Corporation.
Vellore would not get water if the people of Eraivankadu object to the
supply of water from their village to Vellore, she said.

K.
Sooryachari (AIADMK), 41st ward member, said that though the Mayor
instructed the various zonal committees to supply water through
tractors, so far, the supply has not been effected. Besides, tenders
have not been floated for works with estimates of up to Rs. 5 lakh,
which the zonal committees were empowered to undertake. These works
should be expedited, he said.

M. Usha Nandini
(AIADMK), 54th ward member, said that water was being supplied only once
in 15 days in Kaspa area. K. Sukumar (AIADMK), 49th ward member, said
that there were three open wells and three borewells having water yield
in the Thorappadi lake, but water was not being pumped regularly from
these sources since only one operator was available for Thorappadi.
Baskaran, Corporation Engineer said that an additional operator has been
posted in Thorappadi.

Mr. Sukumar said that there
were several areas in his ward which did not have pipelines connected to
the water supply scheme. Since the borewells in the houses have dried
up, the residents were suffering from severe water scarcity. S.
Vijayalakshmi (DMK), 12th ward member, said that it is more than 15 days
since water was supplied to her ward. She wanted the ‘veli kathan’
trees in the vacant sites of the Corporation in East Gandhinagar to be
removed in order to conserve the groundwater.

The
Mayor said that the work on the Cauvery Water Supply Scheme under which
water is to be transported from Cauvery River near Mettur to Vellore
district is making rapid progress, and that the scheme was likely to be
completed in another six months.

Till then, the existing water supply would be streamlined, she said.