The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University’s Anbil Dharmalingam Agriculture College and Research Institute in Navalur Kuttapattu near here has taken up a research project on the impact of the use of treated sewage water being let out for irrigation in the peripheral villages of Tiruchi.
The project was sanctioned in April this year under the All India Coordinated Research Project on Management of Salt-affected Soil and Use of Saline Water in Agriculture.
The sewage water from the treatment plant in Panjappur reaches the Cauvery via Koraiyar, covering a distance of 18 km. En route, about 300 acres of land is being irrigated, with 200 acres accounting for paddy while banana and flowers are grown on about 100 acres.
“The main idea of the research is to ascertain the presence of heavy metals in the sewage water,” says P. Pandiyarajan, Dean of the college.
A team of scientists and research scholars of the college have been working on the project, collecting samples of the sewage water at eight places every month.
“We have identified Panjappur inlet area, outlet point, Sri Kuzhumayi Amman temple zone, Uyyakondan Tirumalai, Woraiyur, Thaalavar Ubayam, Ettarai, and the tail-end point near the Cauvery for collecting the samples of water every month,” say P. Balasubramaniam, Head of Department of Soil Science, and L. Chitradevi, Associate Professor.
The scientists monitor the variation in the water samples from place to place and from season to season. They have noticed a distinct change in the water samples last week after the onset of the monsoon.
Two laboratories are used for conducting the analThe results of the research would be released after one year as more number of samples were to be collected, they say.
