It is a sunny morning and the Veerapandi tank along Oomachikulam - Alanganallur Road brims with water. Farmer R. Nagu is busy removing weeds from her paddy field near the tank. “Last year, many farmers struggled due to insufficient water for last wetting before harvest. This year, the water level has increased after desilting and we are confident that there will be enough water for irrigation,” she says.
Veerapandi tank, one of the chain of tanks that feed Vandiyur tank, has been desilted and the bund strengthened at a cost of ₹30 lakh under World Bank-funded Irrigated Agriculture Modernisation and Waterbodies Restoration and Management (IAMWARM) project. Under kudimaramathu scheme, two main tanks of this chain leading to Vandiyur - Kannanendhal and Parasurampatti - are also desilted, their bunds strengthened and feeder channels cleared.
Since the tanks supply water for irrigation and recharge groundwater level, desilting helps in increasing the storage and clearing the feeder channels result in increasing their carrying capacity when surplus water is discharged . Public Works Department officials say another spell of rain will ensure that water from these chain of tanks will reach the Vandiyur tank, the second biggest tank in Madurai after Madakulam.
The system
Vandiyur tank receives water from three chain of interconnected tanks and feeder channels north of the Vaigai. One of the main supply chains is the Kulamangalam, Veerapandi- Tiruppalai- Siruthur- Kannanendhal- Parasurampatti- Vandiyur link.
PWD officials say currently Vandiyur tank has 40% of its storage capacity of 107 mcft. Executive Engineer of Periyar-Vaigai Basin Division T. Subramanian says currently water from the Periyar Main Canal is supplied to this chain of tanks which starts from Kulamangalam. “The surplus water has reached up to Parasurampatti tank. With additional rains, water from Sathayar dam near Palamedu will be released to these tanks and finally the surplus from all these sources will help increase water level in Vandiyur tank,” he says.
The recharge
About 90% of the kudimaramathu works have been completed at Kannanendhal and Parasurampatti tanks, says Mr. Subramanian. The remaining work will start in January, he says.
The kudimaramathu works at these tanks, the first concerted effort in recent times to restore and revive waterbodies with the participation of the community, is reaping benefits.
The renovation of Kannanendhal tank at a cost of ₹22.4 lakh has been undertaken after nearly eight decades, says R. Jeyaprakash, member of Kannanendhal Tank Water Users’ Association. “Till two years back, with the tank remaining almost dry, people used to dump garbage into it,” he says.
The water stored in the Kannenndhal tank over the last month has helped in tremendously increasing the groundwater level, D. Rammohan, a resident near the tank, says. ‘Now groundwater is available at 40 feet itself. A water tank with a capacity of 3,000 litres gets full in 20 minutes,” he says.
Parasurampatti tank has 50% of its storage capacity. “Till two years back, areas near the tank, including Surveyor Colony, faced severe water crisis. People spent around ₹3,000 every month on water alone. But with water stored in the tank, the groundwater level has increased,” says R. Karuppasamy, president, Parasurampatti Tank Water Users’ Association.
The desilting of Veerapandi tank, one of the two tanks used for irrigation in this chain, has increased the water holding capacity of the tank, says Tirupati, a farmer.
The destination
Vandiyur tank, where the surplus from the chain of tanks flows, plays so important a role that it helps in increasing the groundwater level in at least 10 wards. Lokesh Sinram, Environmental Engineer with the Centre for Urban Water Resources at DHAN Foundation, says Vandiyur tank acts as an urban flood barrier. Hence it is imperative to desilt it and increase its holding capacity.
Though initially ₹5 crore was earmarked for maintaining the tank, only ₹1.31 crore was allotted to the PWD to desilt it.
M.P. Vasimalai, Executive Director of DHAN Foundation, says kudimaramathu scheme can be sustained only through participation of residents. “There must be a behavioural change among people to understand that waterbodies were integral to their everyday life. This is possible only through ‘water literacy’ of people,” he says.
