An Unexpected LPG Connection

A family in Kerala digging a borewell for water finds cooking gas

In Kerala, one has to wait 21 to 25 days to get a gas cylinder after booking. Then there is also the shooting price of cooking gas. Ratnamma and her husband Rameshan, residents of Alappuzha district, are now free from such worries. Two months ago, when they were digging a borewell for water, what they got was cooking gas.

“The water in the old borewell was not clean. A friend of mine in the locality told us that they got good, colourless, clean water from a depth of 16 metres,” says Ratnamma’s brother Binu. They dug 16 metres, but found no trace of water. Disappointed, Binu suggested making a last try by dropping a PVC pipe connected to a motor. The plumber lit a match to mould the pipe and suddenly there was a huge flame. The plumber sensed the presence of gas and tested it by lighting another match. Then they brought a gas stove near the borewell, connected it, and tested again. To everyone’s surprise, both burners lit up a full blue flame.

Binu did not stop there. He asked the plumber to connect the new-found gas to the pipe connected to the kitchen’s stove. “We made black tea to inaugurate the new gas system,” says Ratnamma. She is also slightly worried that it would invite trouble.

A team of experts from the mining and geology department visited the place after Binu informed the media about their find. “They only looked into the borewell and went back,” says Ratnamma. “They said it would last only a couple of weeks, but we are still using the same gas for cooking.”

Ratnamma and Rameshan have connected another pipe to their brother’s house, and he too now gets free gas. “Two months have passed. It has not stopped,” says Binu. He now has a serious plan of starting a commercial unit of cooking gas. “I am thinking of collecting empty cylinders and filling them,” he says. “It is our property. If big companies can take natural gas and sell it, why can’t we?”

The family is still using contaminated water from the old borewell, though. They aren’t trying their luck again by digging one more well. “We cannot handle it if we find gas again,” says Binu.

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Shahina KK