A 14-km stretch of Sakkarathevan canal, which traverses through Kamuthi and Kadaladi blocks of Ramanathapuram district, has been rejuvenated and if this monsoon is good and water flows in Vaigai and Gundar, the canal will help fill 1,700 tanks and increase the groundwater table in 170 villages.
But for more than two decades, the canal had been shrouded under a thick canopy of Prosopis juliflora (seemai karuvelam) and in some parts on its course had accumulated heavy silt and had merged with the landscape leading to encroachments. The laborious task of clearing the thick undergrowth and tracing the course by removing the encroachments and using JCBs to dig the canal was possible due to a team led by Nimal Raghavan, an environmental activist, who is on a mission to rejuvenate waterbodies of Ramanathapuram.
Creating awareness among the youth was easy but making the older generation, who had resigned to their fate of living in a water-scarce area, was not, says Mr. Nimal. “We had to go through various formalities even to get approval from the district administration,” he says. Not far away is fertile Thanjavur district, Mr. Nimal’s home. But they are worlds apart, be it the topography or more importantly people’s attitude. The apathy of Ramanathapuram people is shocking,” he says.
As per the ongoing census by the Ministry of Jal Shakthi, as on October 27, 2023, there are 24,24,590 waterbodies in the country. Out of which 1,06,957 are in Tamil Nadu. Ramanathapuram tops the list with 10,292 waterbodies and Sivaganga comes a close second with 10,032. But for the residents, these are just numbers as not a day passes without women coming to the roads with empty pots and staging a protest.
The land is so parched in some villages water taps are locked so what little comes by way of a trickle is shared equally among the residents and is not pilfered.
In the hinterlands, water is the talking point over which all conversations start and end. The life of the people revolves around it.
B. Thirumalai, a journalist and a writer, says the problem came to the fore only after people were affected. But encroachments were there for long and during that period no one raised a voice. “We have a great heritage of maintaining waterbodies. During the Chola period, ‘kudimaramathu’ helped rejuvenate all waterbodies to store water. History talks of various stages in civilization - the primitive stage was when man raised crops only when it rained, second stage was storing rainwater and using that to raise crops and the third stage was taking the stored water in pipes to various areas to raise crops. “We had reached the third stage much before the European civilization as all our waterbodies were interlinked and we were able to carry water through long distances,” Mr. Thirumalai says.
But in the recent past, not just the public but also the ayacutdars forgot the dictum ‘En Kanmai En Urimai’. As a result, many waterbodies died as the canals feeding them were encroached rampantly. Now, the tanks and the supply channel are heavily silted with thick vegetation. In some areas, the channels have no boundary walls and most of the sluices and weirs are in need of repairs.
Mr. Nimal tells how they had to give ₹5,000 to a farmer to clear “seemai karuvelam” growing on the land, though his parcel of land would be the first to benefit if water started flowing in the canal. “
We cannot always wait for the government to take up rehabilitation of tanks,” say activists.
Whenever gram sabhas meet, the villagers should conduct a water audit and see whether the tanks are cleaned and desilted, they point out.
Mr. Thirumalai says creating awareness of protecting water sources should start from a young age. He points out how Singapore leads in water management. An integrated water management approach that includes reusing waste water, urban rainwater catchment areas, introducing seawater desalination and public education along with creating awareness among school children has led to Singapore achieving self-sufficiency in water supply.
“For one particle of sand to form, it takes almost 1,000 years but we witness rampant sand mining resulting in almost nil water reaching tail-end areas in Ramanathapuram,” says Mr. Thirumalai.
Policies of the government, when framed, should also take into account the water that would be used for the projects. Economist Adam Smith’s virtual water concept should be taken into consideration, says Mr. Thirumalai. From the viewpoint of economic trade theory, abundant water resources gives countries a comparative advantage in the export of water‐ intensive goods, while water scarce countries gain the option to alleviate stress on domestic water resources by substituting the production of water‐intensive goods by imports.
“But as a developing nation, we are failing to take this into account. Economic growth is a ‘thirsty business’ for water is a vital factor of production. We welcome various companies to set up shop here but we fail to audit the amount of water that would be used. If we start valuing water then not only will we start conserving water but also bring about a circular economy where every drop of water is reused in our lives. For this creating awareness among the stakeholders is needed,” he adds.
