The irrigation tank in Valayampattu village in Chengam taluk, built before the 12th Century, should have made passersby look at it in awe but sadly it is being used as a garbage dumping yard.
This is a major irrigation tank maintained by PWD. The sprawling tank of 133 acre irrigates more than 441 acres of land. The tank has two inlets called Oomai Atrukkalvai and Vendhankal Aaru, three sluice gates and a ‘kodi’ that lets out excess water. The inner side of the bund is lined with gorgeous Barringtonia trees, known as Neer Kadamban, in Tamil.
The garbage collected in the village that include plastic wastes and medical wastes are dumped in the tank while a pit constructed using public funds for dumping garbage was encroached. Farming and Indian Rural Education (FIRE) Trust that is working the in village has sent a complaint to Block Development Officer of Chengam, Karunakaran, to look into the issue. “The officials said they could not use the old pit to dump garbage since it is located near Anganwadi centre. They want us to show the alternative site,” according to P.Sivakumar of the Trust.
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The tank’s water measure stone (called Kuthukkal) located near one of its sluices bears an inscription that says which king erected it. K.Venkatachalam, a retired engineer and an organic farming champion, said the inscriptions were found to be belonging to 12th century CE and hence the tank should be older than that.
V. Arivudai Nambi, former member of State Bio Diversity Board, also a native of the village said that the ‘kuthukkal’ stood by the ancient sluice that was located inside the tank. It was a unique ancient architecture. When village wants to open the sluice, ‘neerkatti’ (the village water worker) will jump in the water, swim through and open the sluice. The ancient sluice built using lime mortar was removed some time ago as PWD wanted to construct a new sluice on the bund in the present day model. But the old sluice couldn’t be demolished easily and it had to be blasted off, he said underscoring the importance of the tank.
K. Dharmalingam of the village said the plastic and medical wastes dumped in the tank would contaminate the water and finally the fields would be littered with the hazardous waste. “The anganwadi centre could be relocated to other vacant buildings available much closer to the village and the present one could be used as a garbage segregation centre,” he said.
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Mr. Arivudai Nambi said that protecting public lands was crucial. They were being encroached and as a result people dump garbage in irrigation tank, a most unbecoming practice, he laments. Block Development Officer Karunakaran told The Hindu that they would soon find an alternative place to dump garbage. Garbage already dumped in the tank would be removed as well, he said.