Not very long ago Valankulam Tank irrigated over 800 acres, helping farmers there grow paddy maize.
Tarun Shah, whose family had lands there, says he remembers raising two crops a year using Valankulam waters. This was prior to the 1990s.
“The tank dried soon thereafter, was under the invasion of encroachers and had its channels closed. This left the farmers with very little choice but to leave their lands fallow and convert them into housing units,” he recalls.
This coincided with the birth of Sivaram Nagar, Pari Nagar, Alwyn Nagar, Srinath Nagar and a few other localities.
The encroachments almost encircled the tank – in the south and west by government establishments like bus depots, power sub stations and bus stands, in the north by slum dwellers. In the east, the tank had a natural outlet in a channel. This also came under encroachment.
Houses on both sides of the 30-foot channel have reduced its width to about five feet. The result: the channel has reduced carrying capacity and this has pushed waters to the north into encroached area. After the tank went dry on a couple of occasions in the decade the situation turned worse as sewage starting flowing into it.
To revive the tank, Siruthuli with the help of the district administration had to connect the Big Tank with Valankulam to let excess water flow into it, says Vanitha Mohan, Managing Trustee, Siruthuli. This helped but not really because sewage continues to flow.
The turn for the worse pushed whoever remained out of agriculture, says A.P. Suresh, a farmer who has land in the ayacut. The water that is in the tank today will only make things worse.
“The tank water brought so much rubbish to his land that it took weeks to clean the land,” he recalls. The impact of the polluted water is that the wells in the region also have dirty water, which is used only for non-cooking purposes.
And no agriculture worth a mention is there in the ayacut, which remains in memory and government records.
To clean the tank, the government must first stop the flow of sewage, says Ms. Mohan. It should then look at treating the water, removing encroachments both along the tank and its channels and then desilting and deepening the water body.
If this is not done, there is every possibility of excess water flooding localities east of tank, she cautions.
