VELLORE: The district administration has swung into action to divert the water flowing in Palar river, near Seduvalai village, to fill up Saduperi tank on the outskirts of the city.
This is in response to a plea made by Anaikattu MLA M Kalaiarasu, who had said that Saduperi had been cut off from the system tanks. He contended that it had to receive water from the Palar river but the supply channel was silted. He said that there has been no water in this part of the Palar for over ten years. Excess rainfall in the hills surrounding Vellore city helped reduce the impact of the 40 cm plus rainfall in the region while flooding the two tributaries Peyaru and Agaram of Palar river to feed around 10 system tanks before draining into Palar river near Pallikonda.
Kalaiarasu had submitted a petition seeking intervention of the district administration to make use of the water in the Palar river so that Saduperi could be filled up. He had mentioned that it would help recharge the ground water table in the city, thus considerably reducing the dependability on other locations for water.
He said the district collector had issued an order to the PWD to take up desilting of the 7-km supply channel from Seduvalai village immediately and that two JCBs have been pressed into work for the purpose from Friday morning. Kalaiarasu added that desilting was likely to be completed in the next two days and that water from Palar could be diverted to Saduperi tank after a gap of ten years.
He added that hills in the Anaikattu area was likely to drain water into the river at least for the next ten to fifteen days. If the supply channel is ready by then, it would help fill up the 621 ha tank.
Besides irrigating around 1,500 acres of farm lands in the vicinity, the tank would recharge ground water level in and around Vellore to an extent of 20 square km, he added.
He also thanked the collector and other officials for acting swiftly to divert the water to the tank.