COIMBATORE: Volunteers working for environmental causes have urged the district administration to take steps to restore water streams in Thadagam Valley.
In a petition to Collector Pavankumar G Giriyappanavar by Kaushika Neerkarangal, an environmental organisation, they said that the streams are the main water sources feeding Chinnavedampatti Lake, and the lake can collect water during monsoon, if the streams are restored.
"We have been working towards restoring Chinnavedampatti Lake, located in Saravanampatti in Coimbatore North. It is an artificial lake with an area of about 200 acres. This lake, which comes under the control of the Water Resources Department (WRD), is a major water source in the northern part of the city.
The main water source for this lake is rainwater collected from streams in catchment areas of the Western Ghats through four dams from Chinnathadagam to Kanuvai, and the lake receives water through Rajavaikal and Oothuvaikal, which are about 8 km long each.
The lake and Rajavaikal were created by acquiring agricultural lands through the Land Acquisition Act in the 1980s to meet the demand for water in the arid northern and eastern parts of Coimbatore," said S Sivaraja, coordinator of Kaushika Neerkarangal.
"For the past eight years, many volunteers have been working with permission from the WRD to carry out various works at Chinnavedampatti Lake. In this, we have been continuously renovating and maintaining Rajavaikal since 2017, with the help of many volunteers and private firms and through the state government's 'Namakku Naame' project," he added.
"Even though the Rajavaikal was completely dredged and repaired, water does not flow beyond the Pannimadai check dam during rain. We have inspected the catchment areas in several places and found that the streams in the vicinity that had been dredged require repair.
Ideally, water should collect around small ponds in these areas when repaired, so that it can travel through the streams, cross check-dams and reach Chinnavedampatti Lake through Rajavaikal," he said.
The collector has directed the revenue and WRD to review the places.