Digging For Blue Gold In Rural Areas, TN Govt's 500 Cr River Desilting Project

Chennai: Tamil Nadu government launched a major desilting and renovation scheme of about 11,000 canals and water bodies throughout the state this week. The work is expected to be completed before October when the northeast monsoon, which brings rains to most parts of the state, begins.

Water resources minister N. Anand, who inaugurated the scheme, called for the participation of the public and local body representatives to ensure its completion before the rains.

The government has already launched a scheme to desilt the rivers Adyar, Cooum and Kosasthalai in Chennai to ensure free flow of floods after heavy rains. The works to desilt 10,185 canals and 809 water bodies at an estimated cost of Rs. 500 crore will be carried out under the VB-G RAM G scheme of the rural development department.

One of the objectives is utilising the renamed rural employment guarantee scheme which did not yield fruit and ended as an expenditure for the government. The planting of tree saplings under the scheme did not take off since the personnel planted the saplings on roads and under electricity cables. The panchayat chiefs simply wanted to provide an account for the expenditure for the scheme and disburse wages to the people with an eye on elections.

Using the VB-G RAM G scheme for the desilting work will ensure providing jobs and wages to the rural people, besides rejuvenating the canals and water bodies which will avert floods and provide water during the summer months, as also raising the groundwater table.

The 10,185 canals include those bringing water to the water bodies from the catchment areas and carrying water from one water body to another, besides taking water to agricultural lands. Usually, when canals are not maintained, they are encroached by people, blocking the flow of water during rains, leading to inundation of residential areas.

The precious water, which should normally flow into a water body, is also wasted resulting in water scarcity during summer.

The desilting of canals will bring to light many of the canals which have nearly vanished.

The 809 water bodies to be desilted and rejuvenated include large and small lakes and ponds. The scheme will be taken up throughout Tamil Nadu simultaneously and completed before the beginning of the northeast monsoon season.

Plants on the canals and water bodies will be removed besides the removal of the accumulated sand and garbage. The storage capacity of the lakes and ponds will go up and the water will be used for irrigation of agricultural lands and for drinking water purposes.

During heavy rains, agricultural lands get inundated, leading to the damage of crops, making farmers complain that several days of their hard work and money is wasted. Visuals of farmers showing the destroyed crops due to the inundation of the fields is common during the rains. The desilting of canals will also help in draining the water from the fields, saving the crops during heavy rains.

The water resources minister said the scheme needs the participation of the public, local bodies, ministers, MLAs and NGOs. The scheme is aimed to provide long-term benefits for the rural areas, including preventing floods, storing water, raising the groundwater level and improving irrigation facilities for the farmers. Proper coordination and speedy work by the people are expected to ensure the success of the scheme which provides useful work for the villagers.

For Chennai, the government is formulating a Rs. 22,004 crore project to improve water supply and mitigate floods. The demand for protecting Chennai and the surrounding suburban areas from recurring floods grows louder every monsoon season and voices are raised for solving drinking water problems in summer.

The government plans to take up short-term and long-term flood mitigation works. At present, five reservoirs - Cholavaram, Chembarambakkam, Poondi, Red Hills, Kannankottai-Thervaikandigai and Veeranam tank - with a combined capacity of 13 tmc ft of water, cater to the drinking water needs of Chennai, while the annual demand for drinking and industrial purpose is about 22 tmc ft.

The demand for water is expected to rise to 32 tmc ft by 2035 since more industries are coming up in the city and people are settling in the capital city every day for employment, education and business.

In the recent past, serious impact of climate change has been observed on tropical climatic areas causing unprecedented flash floods in many parts of Chennai, Kanchipuram, Chengalpet and Tiruvallur districts.

To bridge the gap between the demand for water and its supply in Chennai, and to avoid floods in future, the project, ‘Greater Chennai Water Supply Augmentation and Flood Mitigation Resilient to Climate Change’, is being formulated.

The objective of the proposal is flood mitigation and rainwater conservation for deficit years in and around Greater Chennai. The comprehensive proposal comprises enhancing the rain water storage capacity upstream of the city by the creation of new storage structures, increasing the storage capacity of existing water bodies, improving the conveyance efficiency and interconnecting the feasible water bodies.

The proposal aims to create an additional storage capacity of 20 tmc ft to meet the drinking water requirements of the capital and to find permanent mitigation measures to a maximum extent for the areas in and around the city that are vulnerable to floods. This scheme has been formulated at a tentatively estimated cost of Rs. 22,004 crore.