I live in a residential complex having 10 duplex houses with individual open wells of 15ft depth at Chitlapakkam, a suburb in Chennai [near Tambaram] for the past four years. Though water level in the well recedes during summer, we didn't face water scarcity in these years thanks to timely rainfall & recharge of ground water.
But for the first time this summer, water level has further gone down in the last two weeks. I have less than 1/2 feet water in my well, which gets replenished if I take it out. Owing to the current situation, my neighbours got anxious and started sinking bore wells of 100-120ft depth individually. In the last week alone, 6 bore wells were sunk & 2 more is planned this week.
I didn't want to jump into this madness, instead started buying water & store it in the sump (all houses do have individual sumps).
I have the following queries:
1) Though I'm optimistic about rains & using my open well, Will there be any impact to water level in my well due to so many borewells close to my house? I don't want to sink a bore well unless it is absolutely necessary
2) Is it advisable to have so many bore wells in a shorter area? Our residential complex is in 135 ft x 80 ft area of land. What impact does this have to the ground water levels beneath our land?
Appreciate your response. As a matter of fact, my house is situated less than 1/2 km from a lake.
Shree Rajha Kumar
raj_cit97@yahoo.com