CHENNAI: Ahead of the northeast monsoon, residents of Velachery want an abandoned and garbage-filled well on Gandhi Road to be used as a rainwater harvesting system to replenish groundwater.

But first they’ll have to drive home the point of the plan to officials who were blasé about the upkeep of the well, leading to its current state, and now show little enthusiasm for a proposal to put it to good use.

The open well, more than 40 years old, was once a source of water for the neighbourhood and surrounding farmland. Over the years, as it developed into a residential and commercial locality and people received Metrowater connections or sunk borewell, the well became a dumping pit. Authorities turned a blind eye as it filled with empty beer bottles, plastic bags and other waste, and residents and shopkeepers chipped in to cover it with wire mesh.

“Since we do not draw water from here, the authorities could make use of it for rainwater harvesting,” Velachery-Guindy People’s Welfare Association secretary V S Lingaperumal said.

What is peculiar is that the well cannot possibly remain unnoticed by any local officer: It is right opposite the local ward councillor’s office and a few metres away from the corporation office in the locality. And yet the corporation, which is in charge of rainwater harvesting in the city, has been lukewarm to the suggestion of the residents and Metrowater, which was in charge of maintaining the well, has washed its hands off it, with one official denying that the utility had anything to do with the well.

“Rainwater harvesting is one of the government’s priorities so it will be done, if possible,” said the local ward councillor, who has been camping in Bangalore since the day former chief minister was convicted in the disproportionate assets case. “I will come back and look into the matter.”

“The corporation and Metrowater don’t practice what they preach residents,” says Ram Shankar of Swaran (Save Water And Recharge Aquifers Network), a citizen’s advocacy network lobbying with government to harvest water in public and private places. “The corporation should make the effort to harvesting rainwater from the well because it is a public site.”

Several experts have suggested that rainwater pools and wells be used to recharge the groundwater as opposed to building storm water drains that primarily let rainwater into the sea.

Rain Centre director Sekhar Raghavan says the current rainwater harvesting systems are unlikely to last for more than a couple of years because they are likely to get clogged with silt. He suggests that the authorities create ‘recharging wells’ or ‘baby wells’ within the city that will collect rainwater and allow it to percolate into the ground.

