VILLUPURAM: Following recent heavy downpours that lashed Villupuram till Friday, around 3,000 acres of salt pans in Marakkanam taluk were submerged. Salt pan workers in the region said that their livelihood had taken a hit as the inundation had halted the production of salt.
According to official sources, normal life was affected in Villupuram as it received heavy rains from Thursday night till early Friday, recording a downpour of 7.3 cm in a single day. Tindivanam received 1.7 cm of rain and Marakanam recorded 4.5 cm, the highest in the last year, according to official sources. Usually, the heavy rains are expected around the months of November or December and were unprecedented in October, claim farmers.
K Sekar (45), a salt pan farmer, told TNIE, "We would always be prepared for salt pan flooding at the end of the year. Now that it had started almost three months earlier, our livelihoods are affected. And for the interim period, we would not find alternative jobs as well."
Sekar and many hundreds of salt pan farmers affected by the sudden loss of jobs in Marakkanam demand relief from the government to help them survive through the period until January, according to sources.