TIRUPATI : With the decision to breach the Araniar project bund having resulted in the letting out of precious water into the sea, the villagers are seething with anger at the Government for shattering their dreams by bringing down the water level from the project.

Owing to heavy rain that battered the district last week, water inflow steadily rose to reach the danger level in the project at Pichatur, tucked in the South-Eastern corner of the district bordering Tamil Nadu. While the heavy inflow into the perennially-parched dam had certainly caught the officials on the wrong foot, it was, however, not unexpected, given the intensity of the torrential rain. The inability expressed by engineers to lift gates came as a bolt from the blue.

Having been left with the option of either breaching the bund to save the villages in the upper reaches or going ahead with storing the water for irrigation needs, the Government naturally plumped for the former in the precarious situation. Though the bund was cleaved open to a width of 10 feet, the soil erosion caused by the current, however, extended the breach to over 150 feet, leading to a huge wastage of water.

Heavy inflow

While the inflow from the catchment areas stopped, the breach had caused a heavy outflow. And worse, it could not be plugged till the minimum storage level (MSL) was almost reached, that poured cold water on the farmers' plans to reap a rich harvest in the next few years. When the decision was taken to breach the bund, the water was at 39 feet.

At a rate of three feet for every seven hours, the level came down fast, approaching the dead storage level of 12-15 feet.

The failure of the officials to procure sufficient quantity of sandbags to plug the breach had a telling effect on the damage control operations.

Inundates TN areas too

The Araniar breach has inundated Oothukottai, Ponneri, Periyapalayam and Arani areas of the contiguous Tiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu. The flow into the Arani lake has left several villages marooned, including Red Hills on the outskirts of Chennai city. The authorities have sounded an alert, set up relief camps at Ponneri and Gummidipoondi for distributing medicines and food packets to evacuees.

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