BENGALURU: Deep underwater wells in water-scarce areas is the latest and ambitious solution offered by the Karnataka government to tide over the drought situation prevailing in several parts of the State.
Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj H K Patil has announced this project in 10 areas, including Indi, Aland, Kolar and Gadag, that are facing chronic water shortage. The idea is to drill wells that are up to almost a kilometre deep to extract pure, uncontaminated water.
The spark for the project came from a presentation made by a private company, WaterQuest Hydroresources Management Ltd, this year in Delhi at a water conservation meet hosted by the Centre.
The minister is keen on engaging the company to drill underground to tap water veins. “I am personally convinced of it. We want to go ahead with it,” Patil said, admitting that no environmental or impact assessment has been made for this project.
This is how the idea works: the company’s water specialists will detect with high precision the presence and location of naturally desalinated self-recharging water sources typically between the depths of 300 to 800m. Patil said the company promised to identify spots where water would be delivered at a rate of 80,000 to 100,000 litres every hour.
Their not-yet patented technology assures a 98 per cent accuracy in finding water. The state government is also pointing that it is one of the technologies that has been accredited by the Dr Mashelkar committee on water.
Chairman of the Centre for Earth Sciences at IISc, Prof D Nagesh Kumar, however, dismissed such a notion. “Unlike other areas, the Deccan Plateau is made of thick hard rock and water would be able to emerge only from fractures. At 800 metres this would only be available at some locations and such places would have to be identified with geophysical investigations,” he said. The state is keen on having this drilling in precisely those areas with hard rock like Bagalkot, Gadag and Kolar.
The cost is quite prohibitive as well. It is expected to cost around Rs 12.5 crore per drilling.
When areas like Kolar already have borewells at roughly 550m to hit the groundwater and even run dry, it is interesting how the company plans to gain access to ‘self recharging perennial water sources’ at 800 metres.
Prof M S Mohan Kumar,Department of Civil Engineering at IISc, says the government would be well advised to consider proven technologies like desalination process as an alternative, when the costs are high.
But environmentalist Yellappa Reddy is not convinced. “We have dug enough holes in the ground...this will create instability and make the ground susceptible to tremors. These damages are irreversible. How can they assure us about the quality of the water? At 300 to 400m, there is enough arsenic and flouride content in the water to be harmful to us. The impact is not felt immediately, but after years and then it is too late,” he said.