Environmentalists and farmers raise concern over move to sink tubewells on Sitheri anaicut bund

Environmentalists and farmers in Puducherry oppose PWD's plan to sink tubewells, calling for water body restoration instead.

Environmentalists and farmers in Puducherry have raised concern over the move by the Public Works Department (PWD) to sink three deep tubewells on Sitheri anaicut bund in Kuruvinatham village near Bahour using funds from Agence Française de Développement (AFD).

They say that the PWD’s move to sink tubewells as a step towards augmenting water supply and providing potable water for urban areas in Puducherry would be disastrous for Bahour, the rice bowl of Puducherry.

Probir Banerjee, co-founder of PondyCan, a civil society organisation, and member of Alliance for Good Governance – a coalition of various non-governmental organisations – expressed concern over the PWD proceeding with the project.

“The project was stopped during the tenure of former Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi, who assured that it would never come up. It envisages sinking tubewells and bringing water to Puducherry through pipelines. The PWD is now trying to revive the project and this is completely illegal. Instead of rejuvenating the ponds, the authorities are sinking borewells.”

Mr. Banerjee added, “This will be the most destructive project for Puducherry, as the authorities want to destroy Bahour for the sake of Puducherry. The focus should be on the restoration of existing water bodies and ponds. The PWD should scrap this project.”

“The same project has been presented repeatedly since 2016, going against the views expressed by farmers during the public hearing,” said V. Chandrasekhar, president of Bangaru Vaickal Neeraadhara Koottamaippu, a water users’ and farmers’ collective.

“The PWD’s stand that digging deep borewells near river beds would not deplete the groundwater level is a complete lie as deep borewells tap into deeper aquifers that have no immediate recharge potential. The project is completely unscientific as the PWD has planned to tap into already highly depleted groundwater level,” Mr. Chandrasekhar said.