Farmers demand water from dam for 2nd wetting of crops

Coimbatore: More than 1,000 farmers on Tuesday laid siege to the office of the superintending engineer, Parambikulam-Aliyar Project (PAP), in Pollachi, condemning the state government’s failure to release 1.9 thousand million cubic feet (tmc) water from Thirumurthy dam for the second wetting of the PAP first zone ayacuts.
Farmers expressed fear that their crops would perish if they did not get water from Thirumurthy reservoir for the second wetting. They also condemned the state government for releasing 450cusecs water to Kerala from Aliyar dam near Pollachi. Though officials held two rounds of talks with the farmers, the latter refused to budge.

Water from Thirumurthy reservoir at Udumalpet in Tirupur is used to irrigate 3, 77,152 acres of farmland through PAP canal. To maintain proper irrigation, the public works department (PWD) had divided the agriculture fields into four zones. The first zone covers 96,000 acres of agricultural fields and the fourth, 94,000 acres. Thirumurthy reservoir gets water from Parambikulam reservoir through Contour canal.

The state government had ordered PWD officials to release 3.8tmc water to the first zone ayacuts from January-April, 2018. The officials had earlier released 1.9tmc water for the first wetting. They have to now release water for second the wetting.

A group of farmers from Chittur in Kerala had a few days ago staged a protest, demanding the Tamil Nadu government to provide water to their state as per the agreement. When Kerala had started to draw water from Siruvani dam, the Tamil Nadu government was forced to release water to that state from Aliyar reservoir. For this, TN PWD officials have been drawing water from Parambikulam reservoir to Aliyar reservoir through Contour canal for the past one week. In this wake, water supply to Thirumurthy reservoir from Parambikulam was stopped.

Medical K Paramasivam, chairman, Thirumurthy irrigation project committee, said as per the PAP agreement, Tamil Nadu had to provide 7.25tmc water to Kerala. Of this, 5.5tmc water had already been released. The remaining 1.75tmc water would be released from Aliyar reservoir. The plan is to provide 450cusecs water to Kerala till March 15.

“It cannot be tolerated as the PAP first zone farmers are not getting water for the second wetting. The state government should stop releasing of water to Kerala immediately. We will intensify the protest, if the government were to fail to address our concerns,” Paramasivam said.