58-canal: decades-long wait ends for Usilampatti region

It needs to be seen to what extent it can benefit the region

An aqueduct in the 58-canal scheme near Mela Achanampatti near Usilampatti in Madurai district.

MADURAI

After 20 years in construction and a number of protests, legal battles, and appeals to politicians demanding expedition of the project, the 58-canal scheme always looked a pipe dream for the people of Usilampatti region.

Though the dream partly materialised when Public Works Department claimed in March that the construction was over as per the deadline imposed by Madurai Bench of Madras High Court, many in the region were not hopeful of seeing water in the canal in the near future as only the surplus from Vaigai dam can be released in 58-canal.

However, the unexpectedly heavy monsoon rains in Kerala and in Vaigai dam’s catchment areas this year have made the nearly impossible possible.

With Vaigai dam reaching its full capacity and water already released for other regions, the State government issued an order on Tuesday to release 300 mcft of water as a ‘special arrangement’ from Vaigai dam to 58-canal as a trial run to check the implementation of the project.

The canal, which was envisioned as an irrigation project to address water scarcity in the arid Usilampatti region, was announced in 1996 by the then DMK government at a cost of ₹ 33.81 crore. The construction, which commenced a couple of years later, finally took around ₹ 87 crore when it got completed this March.

The project intends to feed waterbodies in 58 villages, thereby giving it the name 58-canal scheme.. The main canal runs to around 28 km after it branches into two with each branch covering a length of around 11 km. With three aqueducts along the route — the longest one running to 1.4 km and reaching a maximum height of 18 metres — the canal can perhaps boast of having one of the longest aqueducts in the country.

The members of Usilampatti Taluk 58 Villages Irrigation Farmers’ Association, one of the organisations in the forefront of struggle for swift implementation of the project, said that the demand for an irrigation scheme for the region started way back in 1983. They said that the actual wait for the project was in fact 35 years.

They, however, acknowledged that only time could tell whether the scheme would actually achieve its intended objective of mitigating the water crisis in Usilampatti region.

Apart from concerns about the quality of implementation of the project, they key concern appears to be the absence of dedicated allocation of water every year as it is done for Periyar Main Canal, Tirumanalam and 18-canal schemes that receive water from Vaigai dam.

Arguing that agricultural lands dependent on these schemes were getting shrunk over the years, they demanded that the share of water needed for these schemes be reassessed so that a share could be given to 58-canal scheme every year.