The Public Works Department (PWD) acted in time on Saturday to avert a major breach in a bund along the brimming Cauvery near Mayanur Barrage.
The erosion, which was noticed on the left bank of the Cauvery river at Mayanur Barrage on Saturday morning, kept intensifying due to the swift and abnormal rise in the water level. Within an hour the erosion had widened by over 100 meters, uprooting about 60 coconut trees on the embankment.
At the juncture when the breach was inching towards the bund of the embankment of Mayanur Barrage, senior PWD officials including Engineer-In-Chief, Water Resources Department, M. Bakthavathsalam, and Collectors T. Anbalagan (Karur) and K. Rajamani (Tiruchi) arrived at the spot to carry out timely action. State Ministers Vellamandi N. Natarajan, S. Valarmathi and M.R. Vijayabaskar also visited the spot and discussed with the officials on arresting the erosion.
The PWD authorities and field staff members, who have been camping at the Mayanur Barrage for the last 10 days to monitor and regulate the heavy flow of water in the Cauvery, swung into action and began the task of arresting the erosion on a war-footing.
Since it was the dam site, they lost no time in arresting erosion by building rubble and stone mound protection wall similar to the method being adopted to stop sea erosion. Location of stone quarries in neighbouring Thottiam and Kattuputhur areas and the availability of heavy vehicles came in handy for the tough task. More than 100 vehicles and four earth movers were pressed into the task of bringing bounders and rubble from the quarries.
They authorities operated the vehicles between the quarries and the Mayanur Barrage round-the-clock. A groyne was formed to divert the water flow.
A rubble mound wall was raised for about 200 meters by placing hundreds of tonnes of boulders and rubble. More than 500 to 600 loads of boulders were dumped at the spot. The erosion was controlled after about 28 hours of non-stop operation.
“We feel relieved after arresting the strong erosion. It was not easy especially when 2.30 lakh cusecs of water was flowing with strong current in the river,” a senior official of the Public Works Department, who was involved in the task, told The Hindu.
Another official said that had the breach not been plugged in time, the erosion could have caused a major breach and loss of lives. The water could have inundated neighbouring villages and agricultural fields.
