In a bid to improve drinking water resources in the long run, the State government had allocated ₹ 25 crore for creating sub-surface storage structures in small irrigation tanks that were previously used for irrigation but now had no ayacuts in the wake of urbanisation, said Commissioner of Revenue Administration K. Satyagopal here on Sunday.
Interacting with media persons after a meeting, Mr. Satyagopal said that sub-surface storage structures would be created by deepening irrigation tanks so that they could retain more water and thus improve groundwater table. “If the tanks had been used for irrigation, they cannot be deepened beyond an extent since water will not be able to flow downstream naturally to ayacut areas. However, since they are not used for irrigation any more, we should use them to store more water,” he said.
He added that similar work experimented in Chennai in 12 waterbodies had proved that around 0.7 tmcft of water could be saved.
Mr. Satyagopal said that the ₹ 25-crore allocation would also be used for creating sub-surface dykes to help improve groundwater table. A government order in this regard was awaited and the work would start once it was issued, he said.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme would be leveraged in a suitable manner for this work since the focus this year was improvement of natural resources, he said.
He highlighted that, as a drought mitigation measure, approval had been obtained from the Central government for increasing the guaranteed workdays under the job scheme from 100 to 150 this year to compensate employment lost in agriculture.
