30 Days On, Villagers Still Spend Sleepless Nights

With rivers and lakes in spate, areas along the banks and canals bore the brunt in Cuddalore; many are worried about when their mud huts will come crashing down soon
30 Days On, Villagers Still Spend Sleepless Nights

CUDDALORE: People of Karivetti near NLC mines and of many other villages had to spend fearful, sleepless nights for the past 30 days.

All the rivers and canals have been overflowing in the district. Nearly 5,000 cusecs of water was being discharged from Veeranam lake into Velliyankal canal. Vellar river was flowing with about 50,000 cusecs of water and Gadilam river with about 30,000 cusecs. Paravanar river is also in spate.

Many villages along the river banks and the canals have borne the brunt. All agricultural lands along the rivers, canals and lakes have been inundated.

A daily wage worker Sellamuthu of Allur village said, “My village is located between Pazhvaikkal and Vellar River. So, all the lands are inundated and many houses swamped. We could not even sleep in the huts with mud walls appearing to crash. There has been no work for me for more than a month. I could not drink even tea as I have no money.”

Karivetti village located adjacent to Neyveli mine was often affected by the water being pumped out of the mines. Many mud huts in Karivetti got damaged, with the walls having collapsed.

Kannan of Karivetti said, “Whenever water is being pumped out of the mine into the Paravanar River, our village gets flooded with waist-high water. Till Saturday, this was the case. We were evacuated in NLC buses and now we stay in a school at Valayamadevi. Whenever water recedes, we stay in our houses and when water inundates, we get back to the school. This is what we have been doing for the past few weeks. Nobody has since slept properly and  we have not cooked food. The district administration has been providing food to us everyday.”

Similarly, the people of the villages of Sarvarajanpettai, Veeranatham, Athipatti, Nanthimangalam and others, along Velliyankkal canal, have also gone through sleepless nights.

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