Chennai borewells failing due to dry lakes

Chennai: Southern suburbs in Chennai and parts of Kancheepuram have started witnessing borewell failure due to drying up of lakes. Of a total of 924 lakes in Kancheepuram, 80 per cent of them have dried up and this had triggered the drying up of borewells and farm wells, public works department insiders told DC.

A visit by DC to Ponneri lake located on the Chennai - Bangalore highway and Urapakkam Karanai lake revealed that the sprawling water bodies have completely dried without any trace of water. "The situation is worse and the farming had been affected in all the villages located near Uthiramerur lake.

During summer the farmers here take up vegetable cultivation relying on Uthirammerur lake, but this year there is no water and there are no vegetable supplies to Chennai from Uthiramerur," said R. Subiah and S. Prabhakaran.
Entire Kancheepuram district blessed with lakes has the capacity to cater to Chennai's drinking water needs. But all these lakes suffer the accumulation of silt that had piled up over the past 30 years and this had dried up the lakes early this year due to drought, says former Maduranthakam MLA S. T. Ukkam Chand. For instance, the Maduranthakam lake has a spread of 2,413 acres with a depth of 23 feet, but there is a silt for more than 10 feet.

This silt if removed during the summer, the water storage capacity of all lakes can be enhanced, he explained. When contacted, a PWD official said the lakes that are measured over 50 acres in size are silted on a periodic basis in a part-by-part manner. This year, several lakes have completely dried resulting in failure of domestic borewells. It's a policy decision of the state to desilt huge lakes, as it requires funding, the official quipped.