The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : In water-rich Siruvanur, aquifers running dry

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 19, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

In water-rich Siruvanur, aquifers running dry

By Saptarshi Bhattacharya

CHENNAI, JULY 18. Siruvanur, near Tiruvallur, about 60 km west of Chennai, is a major source of drinking water for the city. Each day hundreds of tanker lorries, including those contracted to Metrowater, draw water from 35 agricultural wells there. The locality now finds itself water-starved with the groundwater table receding below 150 feet. Now the village sources its water from borewells at Kosavampalayam, a few km from there.

Closer to the city, the residents of Maduravasal near Maduravoyal got together and drove away the tankers. But they had to pay a price in terms of loss of employment.

This predominantly peasant hamlet rose up in anger when the only borewell in the locality went dry due to large-scale drawal from four agricultural wells surrounding it.

These stories came to light at a forum organised by the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) at Red Hills on Thursday that sought to evolve a long-term solution for the water scarcity in Chennai and its semi-urban areas.

Residents and farmers of Tiruvallur district who participated in the meet expressed concern at the indiscriminate drawal of water from agricultural wells.

"At least 100 lorries used to come every day," said Nirmala of Mettu Colony at Maduravasal. "They (the farmers) began cultivation at Maduravasal again, but they would not employ workers who had campaigned against the water drawal."

V. Tamil Selvi, project director, Centre for Rural Women's Education for Liberation, an NGO working on women's empowerment at Tiruvallur, said the community should be given the responsibility to protect its own resources, especially when government agencies allowed their plunder. The Government should also enact laws to support local initiatives to safeguard lakes and sub-surface water.

S. Dayalan, a farmer from Vishnuvakkam, said the villagers were not happy with the rates paid by Metrowater. It paid Rs. 27 to the farmers for every 40,000 litres extracted every hour. The rate reduced if the yield was low.

Research scholars with the MIDS, V. Prabhakar Gnanakkan and S. Sundararaman, said several residents of Siruvanur tapped water from the pipe lines carrying water to Chennai. Metrowater had originally planned to extract 84 million litres of water a day (MLD) from villages around Red Hills and Tiruvallur for supply to the city, but it was getting only about 40 MLD now.

The meeting resolved to carry forward the dialogue and press for rehabilitation of the lakes in the district. S. Janakarajan, Professor, MIDS, said about 800 lakes lay within a radius of 50 km from the city. If they were deepened and the catchment areas improved, they could take care of the water needs of the local community as well as Chennai.

Prof. Janakarajan, however, said that the proposed desalination plant for Chennai should be the last resort for water management as it involved very high costs. The 600 million litres of sewage generated every day could be treated and the recycled water could be used for industrial and other uses.

The participants in the meeting stressed that the Government should learn to respect local knowledge. They suggested construction of check dams at different points on the Palar and other rivers to enrich flow into lakes.

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