CHENNAI:The villages in and around Tamaraipakkam, located about 30 kilometres from Chennai, have two things in common. One, the decreasing water table level depending on how far the village is from the Kosathalaiyar village. And another is the blue-painted booths along the road sides. The booths are covers for the high-capacity borewell pumps owned by the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board to pump groundwater for Chennai. “Since the water from these borewells is not sufficient, they are procuring water from the farmers for the last few weeks. We held meetings among the farmers to jointly resolve that none from the village must sell water to preserve the ground water here. But not every one complies. Since the profit from agriculture is highly uncertain, they tend to sell water,” says S Logesh, a farmer in Velliyur village on the Tamaraipakkam to Tiruvallur Road.
Metro Water has built collection tanks in the villages, to which pipes laid across the farm lands will supply water. From the tanks, the water is pumped to pipes along the roads to Chennai. The villagers in Velliyur say that the water level is now at around 95 feet. “At about 100 feet, there are rocks. So only about five feet water is left. Gone are the days when which ever place we sunk a well, water will be available at just 20 feet,” says another villager, D Chandrasekar. Metro Water pays farmers Rs 35 per hour for allowing it to draw water from their bore wells. The electricity is free. So this is easy money.
“They always say that the water is for a humanitarian cause as there is no drinking water in the city. But in reality, most of the water is sold to industries in North Chennai,” says G Sampath, a councillor from neighbouring Tamaraipakkam, which has a Metro Water office, where a few workers are stationed to overlook the operations. “The water yield has reduced quite a bit,” says a worker when asked about the situation.
For the villagers, the water quality is also getting worse year by year. “The yield in the bore wells have reduced so much. Also the water has started becoming salty. Besides Chennai, water for about a dozen of village panchayats are extracted from separate bore wells at Tamaraipakkam. If the water turns further salty, it will become unfit for drinking,” says C Balaji, a farmer in Punnapakkam village.
According to a study by the Geology Department of the Anna University, sea water intrusion, which already made water in areas like Minjur highly saline, is nearing Tamaraipakkam. “According to our estimate, if the water extraction for needs of other areas is stopped and the groundwater is only used for agriculture, the sea water intrusion will reverse by a maximum of three kilometres in the next 15 years. The estimate was made by assuming the check dams are maintained properly and these areas receive normal rainfall,” says L Elango, head of the department.
While the villagers resent the huge quantum of water being drawn from their village, the indiscriminate mining of sand from the Kosathalaiyar River bed is like adding insult to injury. “Even though the officials know the ground water from here is important not just for the villagers, but also for Chennai, why do they allow sand mining. Already the sand level has gone down so low. Even now they are not stopping the sand mining. Without sand, there is no possibility of the groundwater getting recharged, “ says M Palani, former panchayat president of the Agaram Kandigai village, whose farm land is located facing the river bed.
A Quick Buck