A group of residents from more than a dozen villages located along the banks of the Palar in Cheyyur taluk has appealed to the State government to construct check dams to save agriculture in the region.
In a memorandum submitted to the district administration here on Monday, the villagers alleged that in the past, crop cultivation was carried out in around 2,500 acres in this area, which had now dwindled to just 500 acres.
Depletion of the water table and non-availability of water in the river due to poor monsoon were the main reasons for dwindling agriculture activities, they said.
Meanwhile, the Federation of Palar Protection Movements (FPPM) has called upon the State government to construct check dams/dykes across the Palar, whose basin serves as a reliable groundwater source.
Several drinking water supply wells sunk by the Tamilnadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) on the river bed and deep borewells on its banks at different places manage to fulfil at least 40-50% of the total requirement of the drinking water needs of suburban areas in Chennai and municipal, town panchayat and village panchayats in Kancheepuram district.
At present, just two sub-surface dykes exist in this river bed well below the Kaveripakkam Anaicut in Vellore district, said FPPM convener Kanchi Amudhan.
The dyke constructed near Palur in Chengalpattu taluk in 2015 had replenished the groundwater table in the villages located on both the banks, apart from helping the Railways-owned drinking water bottling plant, in continuing its activities uninterruptedly. With the monsoon playing hide and seek, Mr. Amudhan said it was high time that the State government, which had taken up reviving of lakes under the ‘ kudimaramathu’ scheme, consider construction of a check dam in the Palar at Vayalur, a proposal once mooted by Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage Board.
