After failing to achieve the pre-set paddy cultivation area target for the current ‘pisanam’ season owing to North-east monsoon failure, the district may not only witness unprecedented crop loss by January-end but also face acute drinking water crisis during the ensuing summer.
Since the district experienced copious rainfall last year, the Department of Agriculture could easily achieve its cultivation area target by cultivating crops, including paddy on 99,124 hectares with all eleven dams and the 2,518 systemised and rain-fed tanks in the district overflowing. In other words, the reservoirs in the district had over 14,000 million cubic feet water (96 per cent of the total storage) by last December-end.
The situation is grave this year as the dams collectively have only 909 mcft water (7 per cent of the total storage) after the South-west and the North-east monsoons has miserably let down the district. Unwilling to take a risk, farmers have taken up cultivation only in 76,857 hectares during this fiscal against the actual target of 1.51 lakh hectare.
“All irrigation tanks are bone dry now and prime reservoirs such as Papanasam and Manimuthar dams now have poor storage. To make the situation worse, there is no rain to save the standing crops. The farmers have already started raising their voice demanding compensation for crop loss and this trend will intensify in the days to come,” warn farmers P. Perumbadaiyar and S.T. Shaik Maideen of Communist Party of India.
They dismiss the officials’ consoling words that those who had insured their crop would get the compensation as per the norms. “You cannot expect every farmer to insure his crop as most of them are not even aware of the insurance schemes. So it is up to the State Government to bailout the agriculturists of the district by giving compensation besides waiving all crop loans after declaring the district drought-hit,” said Mr. Perumbadaiyar.
Another impending danger is erratic drinking water supply in the coming summer. The Public Works Department, the custodian of the reservoirs, may be forced to close the Papanasam Dam before December-end if there is no significant precipitation in the catchment area as the district’s prime reservoir now has only 24 feet water against its maximum capacity of 143 feet.
“Storage level in Manimuthar dam is also not so consoling as it has only 36 feet against the maximum capacity of 118 feet even as it is getting a meagre inflow of 17 cusecs. Perhaps for the first time in history, people, who have happily witnessed a swollen Tamirabharani on many occasions, may have to see a dry riverbed during the summer of 2017. In this scenario, there is no need to say about the drinking water woes for a few million population living in Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Virudhunagar districts,” said a senior PWD official here.
