A hand-pump in Gaya. Picture by Suman

Gaya, June 19: The incessant rain since Friday has come as a boon for the water-starved residents of Gaya. It has recharged the underground water table, resulting in dry borewells and hand-pumps becoming functional.

Several borewells and hand-pumps were dry for the past six months because of depletion in groundwater-level.

Retired deputy manager of Indian Oil Corporation Ramashray Singh, who owns a house on road number 7 at Hanuman Nagar, said the borewells of his neighbours had gone dry since February. But since the Friday evening showers, the borewells have regained life.

“I have also installed two borewells on my plot and one has started fetching water,” Singh said, adding that he was hopeful of a good monsoon this year.

For the past three years, the condition of the people living in Hanuman Nagar, AP Colony, Shashtri Nagar and adjoining areas has become miserable because of hand-pumps and borewells going dry.

“The residents, on a regular basis, had to carry water to their houses either from tankers pressed into service by the Gaya Municipal Corporation (GMC) or had to go in search of hand-pumps that could fetch some water to help meet the necessary water requirement,” Ramashray said.

Experts believe more rainfall is needed in Gaya to get the underground water-level recharged in all these areas.

Professor of chemistry, Magadh University, Ranjeet Kumar Verma, said: “It is interesting that people in Anugrah Puri Colony are cleaning the water storage tanks constructed on the terrace of their houses. The water storage tanks had gone dry because the borewells had stopped fetching water since February. Now, as the borewells have started fetching water, there is hope that the storage tanks might be filled once again.”

Public health and engineering department (PHED) executive engineer Ajay Kumar said PHED had constructed groundwater recharge system in 115 schools in rural areas.

“There is a plan to get the system introduced in 200 more schools,” he said.