Chennai: Forty-two refill wells excavated by the rain center two years ago in half a dozen residential areas have substantial groundwater tables.
Now, water is available at a depth of 5ft in most of this refill well, said Director of Rain Raghavan Sekhar.
Sharing details with Toi, Raghavan said the refill wells not only helped in increasing the ground water level, but also prevented stagnation of water on rainy days.
The well is about 4 feet in diameter with a depth of 15 feet.
The Association of Resident’s Welfare in Gardens, Adyar, Lake Lake in Nungambakkam, Mylapore, T Nagar and Kalashetra Colony in Besant Nagar showed a sharp interest to explore wells on their way, where water stagnation became a problem, he said.
After the water starts to be available at a depth of 5ft in the well, many residents want such a refill well in their homes too.
However, the purpose of the Rain Center is to reduce runoff, avoid flooding on the road and recharge the ground water table, then the center only digs wells on the road, said Raghavan.
In Mylapore, former MLA R Nataraj spent a large number of MLA regional development funds to explore wells.
This time, the Wipro Foundation helped the cause by funding 50% of the total well costs covered by the rain center.
Now 40 other wells are planned to be excavated.
The number of RS23,000 is needed to explore a refill well with a diameter of 3ft and 15ft depth.
The last time was a resident’s welfare association whose funds used for this purpose.
Similarly, The Greater Chennai Corporation also explored such wells in several residential areas.
With funds from the company’s house this year, the welfare association only needs to pay half of the total amount needed for work.
With the survival situation of existing groundwater, there should be no scarcity of water in the larger Chennai area in the next year, Raghavan said.