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Karnataka

Karnataka

Revive open wells: official

Staff Correspondent

‘Dried up wells are not useless’
Drive launched to revive such wells

DAVANGERE: Deputy Commissioner K. Amaranarayana has said that open wells in villages, which are the main source of drinking water, have fallen into disuse. They had, unfortunately, become places for dumping garbage, he added.

Expressing concern over the “abuse” of open wells in many villages, he underlined the need to revive them so that they could be put to use again. “By doing so, we will also be allowing the water table to get recharged,” he said.

Inaugurating a workshop on the “Recharge of dug wells” here on Tuesday, Mr. Amaranarayana said people in the olden days dug wells keeping in mind the water requirements of the area. Open wells in some villages might have dried up in summer and residents, thinking that they were no longer useful, had closed them.Mr. Amaranarayana called upon the people not to think on those lines and asked them to revive such wells. “Open wells were an essential part of human life some years ago in villages, and are still relevant,” he said and added that people should keep them clean. The Deputy Commissioner said he had obtained reports from the executive officers of Chennagiri, Jagalur and Harpanahalli taluk panchayats about open wells, and added that the district administration would soon chalk out a programme to revive them.

Gutti Jambonath, Chief Executive Officer of the zilla panchayat, said the Government had undertaken a drive to revive open wells in 70 “dry” taluks in the State. The Government had earmarked Rs. 63 crore for this exercise, he added. He said there were over 1,600 open wells in the district and that he had asked his officials to submit a taluk-wise report on how many of them were in use and how many closed. He said the zilla panchayat would take steps to clean open wells by removing silt and the accumulated waste.

Kudremothi of the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and Vishwanath of the lead bank were present.

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