Check dam on rocky terrain irks veggie farmers in Pachapalayam

Coimbatore: Farmers in Pachapalayam, Perur, say the check dam in the village is of no use as it is built on a rocky terrain that doesn’t allow water to percolate and recharge the groundwater table.
As a result, water level in villages such as Perur Chettipalayam, Arumuga Goundanur and Rama Chettipalayam, has gone down and they had to drill borewells up to 1,000 feet to get water, farmers, who cultivate banana, tomato and other vegetables, say.
M Sundaram had to drill 23 borewells on his five-acre farm to find water. “Four of them had to by dug up to 1,000 feet to get water. The situation has worsened over the last 15 years.”
The check dam edges a pond known as Pachapalayam Kuttai or Kavundanur Kuttai. There are two inlet streams to the pond and an outlet. The entire system is situated on a rocky terrain.
Farmers say a borewell recharge pit should be drilled in the check dam. “A 10ft X 10ft soak pit should be dug around the mouth of the borewell and it should be filled with gravel. Only then, when there is water in the check dam, it would percolate and recharge groundwater,” says R Kulandaivel, another farmer.
P Kandasamy, a representative of the Farmers Association, says they represented the issue to agriculture officials and also district administration officials. “We have been representing the issue for three years now, to no avail.”
When contacted, collector K Rajamani promised to send engineers to the region and analyse what can be done to solve the issue.