Have you seen an open borewell in the shape of a watermelon or a basket? I guess not. It is actually quite astonishing to see a neglected old borewell turning into something beautiful and unique. It has been made possible after the current District Magistrate of Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu,Meghanatha Reddy,implemented a rejuvenation and beautification drive of open borewells in the district. The borewells are restored in such a fashion that they have now become places to hang out in and, as such, the initiative is being highly appreciated by the local people.
The idea for this beautification was picked up by the officer from his previous posting in Chennai Municipal Corporation where borewell in private properties were beautified. The idea which he saw there was converged in this scheme of rejuvenating the borewells in Virudhunagar.
NEGLECTED OVER TIME
While speaking with Indian Masterminds, IAS officer Meghanatha Reddy, said, “Borewells at one point of time were a great source of drinking water and were there in almost all the villages. But, subsequently, with the growth in villages these borewells were not maintained and were neglected due to the inheritance of other sources like tap water connection, pipe connection, etc. This has happened across many parts and many such borewells were defunct for a long time in the district.”
This is when the district administration planned on rejuvenating the open borewells which had accumulated silt over time and were treated as dumping sites. Under a provision of MGNREGA, all such open borewells were identified and were taken up for giving a fresh life to them.
BRINGING BOREWELLS BACK TO LIFE
Mr. Meghanatha said, “Luckily, most of these borewells are located in areas were there is a natural water gravity flow. First, the borewells were desilted and repairment of the crumbled structures was ensured. To ensure that during the rains all the surface water gravity comes to this place, we have places vertical sand filters around the well so that all the surface water flowing around will come here and get percolated, hence, recharging water again in the borewells.”
While the Collector was earlier posted in the Chennai Municipal Corporation, an initiative of beautification of private wells had started in the city. Talking about it, Ms. Meghanatha said, “I vaguely remember the unique initiative of Chennai Corporation where private owners had well in their homes. Those wells were renovated in a nice fashion and I wanted to implement such a drive in our district.”
At the district level, it is the first of its kind initiative, as the open borewells were rejuvenated and were turned into beautiful structures. Around 163 borewells were identified across the district out of which work has been completed in 80. Every borewell is being rejuvenated at a cost of Rs. 65,000, and by the end of this month all the open wells which have been identified will be completed.
The borewells have been turned into watermelon and basket shapes and are very eye catching. The main reason behind turning them into such beautiful structures is, that people don’t destroy them and keep the place clean. Another main issue which is being solved is that all these old wells have been brought back to life, which will now help in recharging the ground water.
