TIRUCHI: The Public Works Department has started releasing water from the Cauvery into irrigation canals of the district from Thursday bowing to pressure from farmers’ organisations.
Farmers staged an agitation here on Thursday in protest against delay in releasing water into irrigation canals, including Uyyakondan canal with an ayacut of about 32,000 acres. Though the release of water into Kattalai High Level Canal and South Bank Canal at Mayanur bed regulator on the Cauvery river came as a relief for farmers, a section of farmers’ representatives said they were keeping their fingers crossed on whether they would get adequate water to sustain the samba crop for its entire duration in view of the poor inflow into Mettur dam.
While the SBC irrigates hundreds of acres of banana, sugar cane and betel vine, farmers will shortly take up paddy cultivation in areas served by the canal between Mayanur and Pettaivaithalai. From Pettaivaithalai, the canal, as Uyyakondan, serves areas up to Vazhavandankottai beyond Thuvakudi on the Tiruchi-Thanjavur border.
Similarly, the KHLC serves areas between Mayanur and Thayanur on the Karur-Tiruchi border, being the source of irrigation for not only paddy, sugar cane and banana but also for large tracts of fields where vegetable cultivation and floriculture have been taken up in places such as Posampatti, Mettupatti and Ettarai in Tiruchi district.
“It is welcome that the PWD has woken up to the situation and started releasing water after our protest on Thursday,” said Ayilai Siva.Suriyan, district secretary of Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam. He pointed out that it would take a few more days for the water to reach the tail-end areas of the canal, leading to delay in samba crop. Much will depend on the monsoon as the present water storage in Mettur dam would not be enough to sustain the crop, he said.
The KHLC has an ayacut of over 20,000 acres. Farmers at a few places along the canal have started sowing, anticipating water release in the canal. But only those with backup and alternative sources such as borewells could go in for the samba paddy crop confidently, said Puliyur A. Nagarajan, president of the farmers wing of Tamil Maanila Congress.
“The water released in the canals will meet the immediate requirements of standing cash crops such as banana which have started withering for want of water,” he said. It would also help improve the groundwater table. But many farmers were wary of taking up samba paddy cultivation as they were not sure whether they could get adequate supply for the crop, he added.
The farmers’ representatives have demanded that at least 400 cusecs should be released into the KHLC to meet the irrigation requirement. The PWD should ensure that at least 240 cusecs of water was released downstream of Nachalur regulator, said R. Subramanian, deputy secretary, Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Welfare Association. He also urged the PWD authorities to check lift irrigation resorted to by some farmers by using diesel motor pumpsets along the canal. This, he said, affected the water flow to the tail-end areas.
