Even though Tirunelveli was blessed with surplus rainfall during the just concluded south-west monsoon, 1,741 irrigation tanks across the district are bone dry owing to official apathy, farmers say.
The district, which used to receive an average annual rainfall of 814.80 mm, received 1,090.99 mm in 2017 - an excess of 33%, thanks to an active north-east monsoon in October and November.
As the western region where 10 of the 11 dams in the district are situated experienced good rainfall during south-west monsoon this year between June and August, the average rainfall of 329 mm between January and August rose to 556.22 mm - an excess of 69%. With the catchment areas of dams along the Western Ghats experiencing continuous rainfall, 8 of the 11 reservoirs overflowed.
In spate for a week
The Tamirabharani was in spate for nearly a week as Papanasam and Servalar dams reached the maximum storage levels of 143 feet and 152 feet respectively.
However, 1,741 of the 2,518 irrigation tanks, including 1,221 system tanks and 1,297 rain-fed tanks, are bone dry. Of the 1,741 dry tanks, 649 are system tanks. Several thousand million cubic feet of surplus water has been wasted by letting it into the sea as officials did not take any step to divert the floodwater to 649 system tanks.
“The officials did not make proper arrangements before the onset of south-west monsoon to store the rainwater in all system tanks. In most of the cases, supply channels from the Tamirabharani have not been desilted and damaged shutters were not repaired. Whenever we raised this issue in the grievance day meetings, officials replied that desilting of channels and repairing of shutters will be done once funds were received.
The kudimaramathu works were executed in a shoddy manner even as farmers were opposing it and alleged rampant corruption in it. These dry tanks vindicate out charges,” said farmer S.T. Shaik Maideen, a Communist Party of India cadre from Vadakarai.
As the south-west monsoon brought a huge inflow of water into the dams, the 11 reservoirs, with a cumulative storage capacity of 13,771 million cubic feet, have 49% water (6,799 mcft). “Though water is being released from all dams for ‘kar’ paddy cultivation, the dams are likely to have a decent quantity when the north-east monsoon sets in October first week. Officials should take steps to desilt channels to store water in the system tanks,” he said.