Cambridge Layout has become a graveyard of dead wells

After serving for decades, wells in Cambridge Layout started getting choked by the noxious sewage that flows in open drains. Almost every household had the same sorry tale to tell — how they savoured the goodness of the open well till it was poisoned beyond repair.

Last week, Krishnan Vaidyanathan closed the well his family had dug in 1980. The mud is still fresh, he says, pointing at the well. All that remains now is four fish in a bowl that the family rescued from the sewage that had polluted the well.

“I have named the fish,” says six-year-old Anusha oblivious of the loss the family feels. For Vaidyanathan, 75, the well water was good enough to drink for about 25 years. Slowly, it began to get contaminated. A foul odour started emanating from it. “We tried to revive it in vain. It soon became a health hazard. We could not live with a stinking well in our compound,” he says.

The story is the same everywhere. The battle against sewage was impossible to win. Residents began to give up on the assets that had nurtured them for decades. “Sewage from the shoulder drains, which are meant for rainwater but have turned parallel drains, had seeped in. We couldn’t do much,” says Vandana Rao, whose family has been living here for 30 years.

AS Pruthvik’s family owned a well here for 60 years. That too had to be snuffed out four or five years ago. His cousin Nishal AG, who lives on 3rd Cross, explains the well had to be covered with a metal sheet and not with mud for Vaastu’s sake. K Vijay Ram also holds on to his well. “The water is good sometimes. We still use it for washing clothes, watering plants,” he says.

“We had to close our well three years ago,” says Sharadamma R, a resident for 42 years. A few do not have the heart to let go of wells. It is not good to close wells, the belief goes.” “My father created this well in 1966. It wouldn’t be right to close it. I still pump out some water every day to water the plants,” says ABS Ramani.

The water stinks, but Ramani does not want to discontinue the ritual. Vaidyanathan says that out of the nine wells on his side of 2nd Cross, seven have been closed in the last few years. Only two remain because the owners are unable to source the mud to fill it with. It’s only a matter of time before the last ones here meet the same fate as others. With that the BWSSB would have supply more Cauvery water and also stop levying the ¤50 surcharge it does on households with borewells and open wells. The wells of the area are especially vulnerable to contamination because they are not deep.

“Dig about six feet and you find water. Everybody’s well is just 18-24 feet,” Vaidyanathan says. The soft soil is about 65 feet thick. Beyond that, there is a rocky surface. Drill through the rock for 50 feet, you can have a borewell. At about 4,000 feet, you can pump 4,000 litres per hour, explains Vaidyanathan, a retired engineer, who during his career was once given the task of sinking borewells for HAL’s engineering division on Old Madras Road.

Now, sumps too are in danger of going the way of wells. Stagnant sewage in blocked drains that seep into wells over time is finding its way into tanks as well. Residents have been fighting to save their wells.

The solution is to replace the pipes and divert the sewage. Wear and tear and overuse have messed up the sewage pipes completely. The layout was formed in 1963-64 or so. The pipes were laid then. Since then, population has shot up, literally. Small houses have been replaced by multi-storey buildings. Refuse generated has increased manifold and it is showing in these ways, Krishnendra says.

Food joints and beauty parlours are especially to blame as they dump solid waste into drains which leads to clogging, residents say. In the 60s and 70s, many residents turned their backs on wells, taken in by the government’s promise of plenty. Many households closed their wells and switched to BWSSB water soon after connections were given.

“There was plenty available. The supply was almost 20-24 hours. It was cheap too,” Vaidyanathan recalls.

But now, increasingly reliant on Cauvery water, the residents are finding it hard to get through summers. The water arrives once in two or three days, the pressure is poor, complains Pruthvik. Building a water tank on land recently recovered by the BDA would help greatly, says ABS Ramani.

Residents have been writing to the water board but haven’t received any answers. Chief engineer T Venkatraju said work in the small lanes and roads will be taken up only when the ongoing works on the mains are complete. Ramaswamy confirmed that 1.5 km of the 3.3-km pipeline from Domlur’s BDA park to Challaghatta Valley has been completed. The pipes’ circumference is of 2,000 mm to 2,400 mm. This will be complete by July 15, he estimates.

Another job of laying huge pipes from Miller’s Road to Domlur’s BDA park via Queen’s Road, Shivajinagar Old Market, Kamaraj Road and RBANMS College is also in progress. Only 30% of that is complete, engineers say. But will these projects make a difference to residents of Cambridge layout? Not likely. They would be incapable of taking the sewage to the giant lines. This problem, however, is yet to get the Board’s earnest attention. When the solution does come at all, it might be too little too late for the locality’s precious wells.