Glimpse – July 2019

54 | GLIMPSE | JULY 2019

SERIOUS STORY

I

ndia is facing a severe water

crisis. Punjab too is on the verge

of turning a desert in the next

20-25 years. What happens when

rivers and lakes fail to suffice when it

comes to our domestic and industrial

water shortage? The Central Ground

Water Authority (CGWA) has already

declared that the ground water has

depleted significantly in most of the

states in India. What do people and the

government resort to and what are the

fatal repercussions of the same on the

general public especially small children

when the work which is initiated is

abandoned midway or closed without

paying heed to any safety measures?

People especially in rural and smaller

cities of India dig a well. But that too

comes handy when there is groundwater

at shallow depths. When groundwater

cannot be accessed by digging a well,

then to access water at deeper levels,

a borewell is generally built. But

sometimes a bore well doesn’t yield

water and that is when it is abandoned.

In India most of the times, these

dangerous borewells are left uncovered

or are partially covered by empty cement

sacks or leaves. Sometimes the digger

uses a casing and partially covers the

hole. Sometimes when these borewells

are left abandoned for long, vegetation

takes over and these borewells get

covered. But then someone accidentally

wanders in and falls into the borewell.

It is generally small children because

the diameter of the pipe is enough for a

child to fall in.

These bores are generally 300 feet or

more deep and when the child falls

inside the borewell, sometimes he/she

doesn’t even reach the bottom of the

bore and gets stuck somewhere in the

mud which accumulates in the borewell.

Most of the times the child cannot even

be seen because the bores are dark and

deep. It is very difficult to even fathom

the depths to which the unfortunate

child has fallen in. Culling the child out

with a vertical shaft becomes next to

impossible.

What happens when a child tumbles

into a borewell?

When a child falls into a borewell, the

rescue operations begin and if the

child is lucky enough to fall closer to

the surface, a rescuer just pulls the

child out. But if the child falls deep into

the borewell, a camera is sent into a

bore and a parallel bore is dug from

which another horizontal bore is dug

and attempts are made to get the child

out safe and sound. Knowledge of the

geology of the area, preciseness of

the rescue operation and swiftness is

required for the operation to succeed.

BEWARE OF

THE KILLER

BOREWELLS

Water scarcity in India is leading to indiscriminate boring

for water which is leading to a black market in the same.

Further the negligence and the ineptitude of the concerned

authorities, private contractors & landlords in sealing the

many open & abandoned borewells in India have devoured

children many a times. But we are yet to learn a lesson.

Text: Disney Brar