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Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

Beyond drought: Tamil Nadu's chain of misfortunes -Seetha Gopalakrishnan

-India Water Portal

Tamil Nadu continues to witness cycles of flood and drought annually. Mismanagement of traditional water management systems is one of the main reasons.

That Tamil Nadu qualifies to be dubbed as a land of climate paradoxes is beyond debate. The massive flood of 2015 was quickly followed by a punishing drought in 2016. Though the state benefited marginally from the south-west monsoon, as is usually the case, the biggest let down was the manner in which the more dominant north-east monsoon had panned out. Tamil Nadu wound up with a paltry 168.3 mm of rainfall during the north-east monsoon season as against the normal 440.4 mm, leaving the state with an overall deficit of close to 62 percent of the long-term expected average precipitation.

From Cauvery to Kollidam, innumerable dams and irrigation channels remain bone dry in the delta districts. Most reservoirs reached dead storage levels from the Vaigai dam in Madurai to the Manimuthar dam in Tirunelveli down south. As a consequence, around 102 farmers, mostly farm labourers and marginal farmers, have either taken their lives or suffered fatal heart attacks owing to crop losses.

But are poor monsoons alone to be blamed for Tamil Nadu’s predicament? Not really. The state is neck-deep in crises ranging from tricky interstate water sharing disputes to wretched centre-state relations that caring for and sustaining local water resources often takes a backseat.

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