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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Along Cauvery, burned down by drought and debt -Vidya Venkat

Along Cauvery, burned down by drought and debt -Vidya Venkat

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published Published on Jun 27, 2017   modified Modified on Jun 27, 2017
-The Hindu

Six months after Tamil Nadu was declared drought-hit, farmers across the Delta districts are no longer blaming Karnataka

On June 12, the customary date on which the Mettur dam in Salem district is opened to provide water to the lower reaches of the Cauvery, the riverbed stretched as far as the eyes can see, barren as a desert. P. Ayyakannu, the farmer-leader who recently led a series of protests against the Centre and the State demanding drought relief, said, “It has been six years since the dam’s gates were opened on time, and you can see the state of the river for yourself…and pro-Kannada organisations are calling for a bandh demanding two more dams in their State to tap the river’s water. Where are we to go then?”

The Cauvery irrigates eight districts in the main in Tamil Nadu — Erode, Karur, Ariyalur, Perambalur, Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam — and it journeys eastward towards Nagapattinam district, where it finally drains into the Bay of Bengal. Following two consecutive years of failed Northeast monsoon, Tamil Nadu suffered its worst drought in 140 years in 2016-17. The entire State was declared drought-hit in January this year.

Six months on, little appears to have been done by the State to remedy the situation. In six badly-affected districts, The Hindu found that farmers were beginning to grow tired of the ‘blame Karnataka’ strategy adopted by the government every time there is a water crisis. Farming operations have come to a virtual standstill, and only those with deep borewell irrigation or those cultivating on the riverbed could be seen carrying on with regular cultivation. While Karnataka has already built adequate dams on the Cauvery to tap its water upstream, farmers in Tamil Nadu are angry that the State has done little in terms of implementing similar measures.

Inadequate rainfall during the Southwest monsoon in 2016 affected the upper riparian state of Karnataka as well, resulting in its inability to allocate to Tamil Nadu the 2,000 cusecs of Cauvery water per day as mandated by the Supreme Court’s order of 2016. As on June 21, the inflow to the Krishna Raja Sagar dam in Mandya, Karnataka, was only 1,275 cusecs (as per government figures), most of which goes towards meeting the drinking water requirements of major cities in Karnataka.

“If you look at the total amount of water allocated for Tamil Nadu by the Cauvery Water Tribunal, Karnataka is only to provide 192 tmcft [thousand million cubic feet]. The remaining 227 tmcft is to be gained from Tamil Nadu. So the State too needs to do its bit to tap into the Cauvery’s potential for irrigation,” said P.K. Deivasigamani, who heads the Tamil Nadu Joint Farmer’s Association, based in Erode. “In 2014, ?400 crore was allocated for building a check dam across the Kollidam River on the Nagapattinam-Cuddalore border, which could help meet the drinking water and irrigation requirements of the region, but the State government has not taken any action till date,” he said.

S. Janakarajan from the Madras Institute of Development Studies told The Hindu that across several districts in the State the problem of mining water was beginning to surface. Mining water refers to the stage when withdrawal of groundwater reaches a point where it is beyond replenishment. This was especially the case with the non-Cauvery delta irrigated zones such as Madurai, Theni, and Ramanathapuram. In coastal areas, sea water intrusion has resulted in the water turning saline. “Half of Tiruvarur district now has saline water,” he said.

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The Hindu, 25 June, 2017, http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/along-cauvery-burned-down-by-drought-and-debt/article19144308.ece


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