Hot water oozes out near ONGC’s old well in Kosamba

Surat: Hot water is oozing out of a plot of land at Tarsadi village near Kosamba in Surat district since the wee hours of Tuesday. Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) officials said the water which is oozing out from near a dried up ONGC well was suitable for drinking and they would cap the water source by Wednesday.

"The water level had gone down in this area. So we had installed a compressor to bring the water level up in our borewell some 48 hours ago," a local resident Jaydeep Patel said. "The hot water started to ooze out at around 3 am on Tuesday. There was an ONGC well nearby the spot some 35 years ago," another local villager said.

An ONGC team from Ankleshwar visited the village and tested the water. "The water is potable and doesn't contain any hydrocarbon particles. This could be due to simple underground activity and also because compressor had been used by people in the vicinity to bring the water level up, an ONGC officer said.

General manager (HR), ONGC, Ankleshwar, Rajeev Kumar Sharma said, "The source of water lies around 10 feet way from our old well. The water is not harmful. Our crisis management team has visited the place and we would be capping the water source by Wednesday."