Mission Paani: Women in drought-hit Vellore come together to recharge wells in a bid to raise groundwater level

Chennai has been in the news for facing a severe water shortage for over two months now. But beyond the metropolis’ water woes, in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore district, over 20,000 women have been recruited to recharge wells in a bid to increase groundwater levels.

Vellore had experienced an exponential rise in groundwater levels during 2017 monsoons, and residents are hoping that a similar good fortune would bring them smiles in October, when rains lash the parched district.

Women have been recharging a well at Gudiyatham town in Vellore district, and the credit for the initiative goes to a joint collaboration between the Tamil Nadu government and spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s ‘The Art of Living Foundation’.

These women work from 8 am till 2 pm for a daily wage of Rs 160-180. The state government has entrusted them to revive Naganadhi River, Vellore’s primary source of water. The decision to revive Naganadhi came after successful ventures with Vedavathi and Kumudavathi rivers in neighbouring Karnataka.

Vasantha, a daily wage labourer, is “happy to work on this project”. “We used to go for 100-day-job scheme (MGNREGA), but unfortunately the money wasn’t enough. Now, we are working on the project to recharge wells, and we are also getting decent pay. So far, many wells have been recharged in this district,” she said.

The project was first tested in Kaniyambadi in 2015. While the district administration had planned to recharge 4,828 wells, till now 2,300 wells have been recharged. Each well is recharged at an estimated cost of Rs 80,000 and is about 20 feet deep.

Another daily wage labourer Bhuvaneshwari said, “Vellore has been facing an acute water shortage for over eight years. But we are hopeful that the crisis will be resolved because of this initiative.”

Bhuvaneshwari’s friend Kuttiamma pins a similar hope, “Whenever it rains, we use as many buckets as possible to store rainwater to wash our clothes. We hope that next time it rains, the recharged well will help increase the water level so that we don’t face a similar water shortage.”

The recharging of wells is expected to raise the groundwater level by over six feet till monsoon lashes the city later this year.

The crisis has been so acute that an estimated 50 percent agricultural labourers have left the district in search of livelihood over the past few years. In March, the state government declared Vellore as one of the 24 drought-hit districts in Tamil Nadu.