The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Government urged to desilt dam sites

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Friday, Jun 13, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Government urged to desilt dam sites

L. Renganathan

Sand and mineral silt sale will fetch crores of rupees for the State: farmers

Mettur Dam has lost about 26 per cent of its storage capacity over the last seven decades
18 major dams and reservoirs across the State need to be desilted

KARUR: Farmers have urged the State Government to desilt all the dam sites so that their storage capacity would increase even as the move would reap huge revenue for the exchequer through sale of sand and mineral silt for use in fields.

In particular, the State Government should take steps to desilt the Stanley Reservoir at Mettur across the Cauvery that has gradually got silted to a formidable extent.

“Surveys and researches have revealed that over the last seven decades the Mettur Dam has lost about 26 per cent of its storage capacity due to accumulation of silt at the dam site.

That should be cleared in the near future,” according to working president of Cauvery Delta Farmers’ Welfare Association Mahadanapuram V. Rajaram.

Similar was the condition of several of the 18 major dams and reservoirs across the State and all they needed was a desilting operation that would provide them with a fresh lease of life.

In fact, the dams have never been desilted so far and several river engineers and experts have suggested that the reservoirs and dams needed to be desilted for retaining their maximum utility.

Referring to the PWD Minister Durai Murugan’s recent speech in Kanyakumari on impossibility of desilting the dams, the farmers’ leader said that, considering the magnitude of the Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project, desilting of the dams was next to nothing.

English designers had long back stated that it was natural for sand and silt to mix with water and pile up in the Stanley Reservoir and that it could only be periodically cleared to retain the storage capacity.

Even retired PWD officials have opined that dams, especially Mettur Dam, should be desilted so that their capacity could be enhanced and sale of silt and sand could fetch handsome returns for the Government. The silt was mineral rich and would enhance the fertility of the fields, Mr. Rajaram pointed out.

Efforts should be taken to analyse the silt and segregate its components and explain to the farmers how they would be useful.

The sand that has got accumulated in the dam site should be auctioned off through Salem, Dharmapuri and Erode district administrations. If the sand available from Mettur to Kottur, a distance of about 30 km, was auctioned off, then a multi crore bonanza would come the government’s way, he said.

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