VIRUDHUNAGAR
Tamil Nadu is facing one of the worst droughts of recent times. Bone dry tanks are ubiquitous across the State. However, here is a temple tank, Mariamman Temple Teppakulam, that has sufficient storage to recharge some 1,000 borewells.
The continuous efforts of members of Virudhunagar Hindu Nadar Palasarakku Magamai, a body of Hindu Nadar traders, who spent their time, energy and resources, saw the tank of 100 metres by 95 metres brimming with water till May 19 this year.
“With a prolonged drought-like situation, we are unable to pump water to maintain the level in the tank to its brim for the last few weeks,” its secretary M. Radhakrishnan said. The 8-metre-deep tank has lost some 15 feet of water, but still that is enough to recharge borewells located in over one km radius.
The magamai has been maintaining the tank for over 150 years. Initially, it had harnessed rainwater from a huge catchment area near Perali Road on northeastern side of the town and drained into Kalankarai Oorani and Velayutha Oorani, and filtered water was used to fill up the teppakulam.
In the early 1960s, Virudhunagar Municipality constructed a check dam across Gowshika river and the water from here was pumped to fill up teppakulam. However, due to urbanisation, the dam water got polluted.
The then Collector, K. Gopal, motivated the local community to come up with one of the biggest rainwater harvesting networks connecting some 500 buildings in early 2000. He also helped to revive pumping from the river by constructing a bund that diverted sewage water. However, within years, it again got polluted when a major renovation work was taken up.
Later, the magamai found four acres of land at Chinna Mooppanpatti along Gowshika river that had been crudely dug up for its sand. As water experts from Anna University found it feasible to pump water from this spot to the teppakulam, the magamai bought the land and dug up a huge pond. Only with active support of district administration, the pipelines could be laid under the four-way national highway, recalled former secretary A. Sudarshan.
“The pond could store some 30 crore litres of water or four times the total capacity of the tank. Even one spell of heavy rain is enough to fill this pond and it can be used to keep water level in the tank to its brim for three months,” Mr. Radhakrishnan said. The magamai created a record of keeping water to the brim of the tank for 302 consecutive days.
“This is despite the fact that we have sunk 14 injection borewells on the tank bed and also a side borewell to expedite groundwater recharge. We have set up four water dispensers for free supply to people,” he said.
Besides, overflowing water from the tank is let into three wells with the help of one-km-long underground pipelines. That the water level in wells kept going down within 24 hours after pumping was stopped was proof of speedier groundwater table recharge around them, said Mr. Sudarshan.
Stating that hundreds of bicycles and tricycles used to come to the tank in the past for fetching water for residences and hotels, the secretary-elect, A.D. Sathyaraj, said the number of such people had come down drastically over the years as all the defunct borewells had started yielding water.
“This is a success story and valuable intervention by members of public keeps it sustainable,” said Mr. Gopal, who is now Principal Secretary, Department of Animal Husbandry. He said 76,000 tonnes of standing water not only recharged groundwater in large quantity, but also neutralised total dissolved salts (TDS) in water.
Former Municipal Vice-Chairman Balakrishnasamy said Virudhunagar, unlike other towns, was not facing much shortage of water for other purposes due to generous recharge of groundwater. This was despite the municipality supplying water only once in 8 to 10 days.