Beginning May, the mercury is set to rise further. In the next 30 to 45 days, water management is going to be a real challenge for administrators as Madurai has never experienced such a crisis in the recent past.
When water has been a major subject being discussed daily in the district administration and down the network of officers, The Hindu interviewed people residing in village panchayats, town panchayats, municipalities and the Corporation limits in the last seven days.
According to the residents, those in pockets such as Usilampatti, Chellampatti, Sedapatti and Tirumangalam are facing severe problems in accessing potable water, while the situation is relatively better in Melur and Vadipatti.
As for those residing in Madurai Corporation area, which has 100 wards, water is rationed with the supply maintained on alternate days (6 wards), once in three days (22 wards) and once in four days (72 wards).
With regard to people in town panchayat limits, out of 144 wards, daily water supply is done in 126 wards while 18 wards get water on alternate days.
The worst hit are village panchayats. Out of 420 village panchayats, 334 with close to 1,900 habitations are turning dry. With the ‘Agni Natchatram’ set to roll in May, more habitations are expected to fall under the dry spell. According to officials, close to 1,000 habitations, out of 1,900, may go without water.
Taking pro-active steps from as early as January to mitigate the drinking water needs, Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao and team not only studied the requirement for the next 100-150 days block-wise, but also took stock of the available resources.
The district administration was open to suggestions and during a farmers’ grievance redressal meeting, when the participants pointed to the drawal of 3.6 MLD of water from Vaigai dam by two commercial establishments, it was immediately reduced and it resulted in 50% saving.
Likewise, squads were formed to check illegal tapping of water and the number of disconnections was a little over 2,500. From January to March, the officials seized over 1,100 motors.
Focussing on the availability of fodder, Mr. Rao said that the demand for 90 days was 59,538 tonnes and the district had a little over 28,000 tonnes in hand, with a shortage of about 31,000 tonnes. Thus, alternative measures to bring down the gap between demand and supply was taken since January-end by Animal Husbandry Department officials.
Farmers were encouraged to grow fodder and nearly 700 took to growing Azola, while 75 took to hydroponics fodder.
Awareness and health camps were held all over the district, which has 2.14 lakh cattle, 5,549 buffaloes, 1.85 lakh sheep and 2.97 lakh goats. So far, 174 veterinary camps have been held and fodder depots started.
In Chellampatti, a farmer, Ramasamy, said that they had been getting water only once in 15 days. However, the ray of hope for them was the assurance from officials that the situation would be effectively managed and alternatives implemented.
The government too, for its part, had directed the banks not to press for any repayment of loans and credited the drought relief amount in farmers’ bank accounts. The cooperative banks too have waived crop loans and taken steps to rehabilitate farmers by employing them under Central and State schemes such as the MGNREGS.
