Old well in St. Lawrence PU college premises closed to make way for larger play ground

Dr Eugene

Report and Pictures by Eugene Moodubelle
Bellevision Media network

Moodubelle, 13 October 2009: With the Udupi Taluka level inter-PU College sports meet scheduled to take place from 15th October 2009 in the play ground of St. Lawrence PU College, an old unused well at the western edge of the ground had to be closed and covered in order to expand and level the ground so that 200 meters racing tracks can be accommodated.

The old well had been providing water to the High School and PU College since their inception. However, since three or four years, the well has not been in use. The High School and PU College have been using water supplied by the Belle Grama Panchayat and from the borewell in the English Medium School. A new well, specially meant for the High School and PU College has been dug, but not yet commissioned.

When it was planned to close the old well in order to make way for the expansion of the ground, it was decided that the well could be utilized for water harvesting by covering it with pre-fabricated concrete slabs resting on Iron-C channel on the mouth of the well and filling the hollow space with mud up to the level of the ground. A special broad pipe is being provided so that the rain water can flow from the ground and surrounding areas into the well which would enable the borewells and other open wells in the region to have better water level as a huge rock within the old well has cracks which allows the water to percolate.

The difficult work of covering the mouth of the old well with pre-fabricated concrete slabs was completed on the evening of Thursday, 8th October 2009. The JCB heavy duty machine belonging to Mr. Vincent D’Souza of Kuntalnagar was specially brought for this purpose. The machine lifted four slabs one by one and placed them on the mouth of the well resting on the Iron C channel and the concrete edge of the well. It was quite a risky task, but accomplished under the guidance of Principal, Fr. Paul Sequeira, Mr. Henry Fernandes-Vice President of the Parish Pastoral Council, Mr. Immanuel Cornelio-Ex-PT Master and Convenor of the Ground Renovation Committee, Mr. Vincent D’Souza and Mr. Diwakar Achar, the fabricator of the concrete slabs.

Following the covering of the mouth of the well, the JCB machine filled the hollow space with mud and levelled the ground. While, the ground has expanded, the old well has apparently disappeared. However, the well is very much in the underground serving as a reservoir for water harvesting.