The periodic cleaning of residential wells is important and Austin Nicholas and
team certainly do not muck around on the jobBharati Pawaskar / The Goan 27
April 2013
It was past eight pm when Cathy’s pet cat fell in to the neighbourhood well.
Sadly her soft mew could not be heard. The next morning, all that was left was
a bloated body floating in the water. While Cathy felt sorry for the poor cat
that lost its life, her immediate concern was to remove the carcass and get the
water cleaned. Enter Austin Nicholas of Austin Enterprises from Calangute who
removed the cat and cleaned the water with H2O, a neem-based water cleanser as
he believes that potassium permanganate, chlorine or other chemicals are
harmful. Armed with degrees in mechanical, civil and software engineering,
Nicholas chose to open his own company, ‘Austin Enterprises’ in 2004. “We have
cleaned more than 500 wells in the last eight years,” boasts Nicholas adding
that April and May is peak season for the team.“Wells link our healthy past to
our hygienic future and we must preserve them,” he declares, reminiscing that
Goa had abundant water in the past and each house was blessed with a well with
enough water to sustain even large families through the summer. “The increasing
thirst of the industry is taking a toll on the water table which is fast
depleting,” he adds.In today’s modern set up, wells are neglected. Their
importance is sidelined. Many a times old wells are filled in and closed to
make way for new constructions. “This disturbs the ecology,” states Christopher
Prim, a supervisor at Austin Enterprises and points out that over the years,
the fissures in the well get clogged, thus resulting in a reduced water yield.
Also sediments like mud, muck other debris, and even fish, frogs and turtles
make the well water dirty and unsafe for drinking. “It is for this reason that
wells must be cleaned regularly,” states Prim, who advises against putting fish
or turtles in the well as their waste makes the water unsafe for
consumption.“If a well is not cleaned for 10 years, there would be around 2,000
litres of muck accumulated at the bottom of the well,” calculates Nicholas
adding that sometimes people lie about when the well was last cleaned. “In such
cases, and especially if the well is more than eight metres deep, we do a fire
test. (See box). Extremely narrow wells also pose a problem. The first person
who goes down can suffocate and even go into a coma. Oxygen cylinders are
costly and we can’t afford them, so we do manual fanning and keep an extra team
ready in case of emergencies,” he expounds. Goans are attached to their wells
and clean them regularly. They are a part of Goan life as we know it.
Hopefully, more people will come forward and maintain their wells, which will
be a big step towards water self-sufficiency in the state.
