The villagers welcomed the inflow by showering petals on the canal and tank in the presence of HR & CE Minister Sevoor S Ramachandran and Tiruvannamalai Collector Sandeep Nanduri recently.

Desilted under the kudimaramathu scheme, the Kariamangalam tank which has an ayacut of 250 acres meets the water needs of a population of 8,000 belonging to 1,500 families in 16 villages. Water released from the Kuppanatham dam is now flowing into the tank which was sans water for nearly four decades.

According to Venketesan (45) of Peyazhampattu village and one of the beneficiary villages, “Earlier, we were unable to raise even one crop due to the inlet channel to the tank being both silted up and encroached upon. But, now with water flowing after removal of encroachments and desilting of the approach channel we will now be able to raise two crops in the coming year. We will also not meet any drinking water shortage issues,” he added.

Asked about this, PWD officials said, “the desilting was carried out at a cost of Rs 97 lakh. As we needed another 6 cents land to ensure that the channel meet the needs of the water released from the Kuppanatham dam we requested the land and they (villagers) after consultations purchased the necessary land and handed it over to us due to which water now flow seamlessly. We cemented 100 metres of the channel near the tank so that water would have an unhindered flow.”