Danger well peoples wants to close
The well at Venkatachalapathy Nagar that the residents want closed.At a time when an open well full of water is a rarity, residents of Venkatachalapathy Nagar at Kurichi, a suburb south of the city, are cursing the existence of one in their colony. They say it is too close to the main road of the colony and in a condition that poses risk to people.The Kurichi Municipality says that only a few people want it closed, while the majority of the residents want it conserved to maintain a good ground water level.The well, once used for irrigation, has weeds, thorny plants and plenty of garbage. A layer of all these hides the water from people visiting this area for the first time. Only a second look will warn them of the well that has a barbed wire fence around it. Plastic bags containing garbage hang from the fence. Apparently, they had been stopped by it while flying towards the well.“We want the well closed. Three boys and a number of cattle have drowned in it,” says secretary of the Venkatachalapathy Nagar Residents’ Welfare Association R.C. Anandan. “Only after a great amount of persistence that we got the fence erected around the well to prevent people and children from falling into it.”
Children take this road to a school nearby. Despite the fence, there is the fear of children trying to get through it and falling into the well. According to the residents, one of the boys who drowned had tried to fish in the well. The two others also drowned when they had tried to rescue him.The residents say the well is full of water throughout the year because of being located just a kilometre from the Kurichi Tank. They say that the well had been useful when the colony was formed in 1986 and for a few years since then.
Water from the well had been used for the construction of the houses. The residents also had plans to build a tank, pump water from the well into it and distribute it across the colony.“Later, rainwater and sewage from Pollachi Road kept flowing into the well, leading to its remaining in disuse for years,” says vice-president of the association M. Annamalai. “We have been requesting various authorities from 1997 to close the well. But, nothing has happened,” he laments. K. Kalaiselvi, whose house is separated from the well by an open site, says there is seepage on the floor and the drinking water sump. “Snakes from the well come into our compound,” she says.
The association members say that people cannot pray for long at the temple adjacent to the well because of mosquitoes and the fear of snakes. Apart from the streetlights, the lights of the temples are on throughout the night to reduce risk for the people living near the well.Ms. Kalaiselvi says the open site next to her house belongs to her relative and is a mess because of seepage. A compound wall cannot be built along the well because of this problem. The road margins are so damp most of the time that wheels of vehicles sink into the ground and break water lines.
