An unexpected Bonus

We found a shallow aquifer well rejuvenated!

At Farm Hill, we are at the bottom slope of a group of hills. At the lowest point, just next to the place, we have a water channel.

We have a few mango trees at Farm Hill. When I asked the previous owners where they got water from to plant the trees, they said they used to dig a shallow well next to the water channel and get water. When I asked if it’s still possible to do so, they said no, since there haven’t been good rains of late. This was a year back when we were just buying the place and I had forgotten about it.

The summer of 2019 was bad. It’s been about 10 years since the last major rains and all borewells went dry in May. In a 2 week period in May, about 15 bore wells around us were either deepened or freshly dug. The average depth of water level went down to more than 750 feet from about 450 feet. Our 500 feet borewell went fully dry. The rains this season have been good but it hasn’t recovered yet.

Meanwhile, since getting the place, we looked at the slopes, dug about 5 levels of trenches, a few water holding ponds and more or less stopped rain water from flowing out of the space.

A couple of days back, a member of our construction team noticed a little bit of water in a small hole in the water channel. When we checked, it turns out that was the place they used to get water in a shallow well earlier. Ganesan L went ahead and got a small shallow well, about 3 feet deep, dug.

Right now we have water in it. We will watch it for a few days and see if we can deepen it further. This feels awesome being able to tap the shallow aquifer.

And it made a great science lesson too!