Brushing aside all warnings by agriculture officials about acute shortage of water for irrigation of first crop this season due to failure of south west monsoon and poor storage in Periyar dam, farmers have brought 80 per cent of lands in the Cumbum Valley under paddy cultivation thanks to indiscriminate tapping of water from Periyar dam.
With heavy tapping of water from the river for transplantation, not even single drop of water reached Vaigai dam, prime drinking water and irrigation source for five southern districts.
Officials admitted that transplantation was over in more than 10,000 acres in the valley. Majority of farmers have adopted SRI system of cultivation. The officials achieved this season’s target under SRI scheme, they said.
In the middle of August, the PWD officials had closed all 17 channels denying water for raising seedlings and transplantation. They advised farmers to stop all farm activities as they could not ensure water supply to protect standing crops till the end of the season due to poor storage in the dam and no scope for further improvement in subsequent months. But it has been releasing 300 cusecs of water into the Periyar with an aim of improving storage level in Vaigai dam.
Capitalising the good flow in the river, many farmers in mid and tail-end areas have completed transplantation as they had raised the seedlings before closure of channels with limited availability of water. Now, farmers have started tapping water from the river illegally taking it to distant farms using tubes to protect the standing crop. Such illegal tapping scaled down inflow into the Vaigai dam which has been depleting rapidly. With sharp increase in indiscriminate tapping from the Periyar, inflow into the dam was totally nil.
The PWD officials seized a few pumping motors in Uthamapalayam and Chinnamanur initially and did not take any action against illegal tappers. Now, condition of Vaigai dam was very pathetic as water level stood at 27.62 feet posing a grave threat to drinking water needs of several towns, villages and Madurai city. Inflow into the dam was nil and there was a discharge 60 cusecs to meet drinking water needs of Madurai city.
