VELLORE: The panchayat presidents of around twenty villages in Natrampalli block in Upper Palar belt passed several resolutions urging the State government to adopt measures for resolving the severe water scarcity crisis in the group of around 20 villages in the Natrampalli block.
At the outset, the panchayat presidents appealed to the State government to divert at least a portion of the villagers’ requirement for drinking water from the Integrated Drinking Water Scheme from the Cauvery River (or Integrated Cauvery Water Scheme) to their villages that are currently facing acute water scarcity. In a memorandum submitted to the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, the panchayat presidents represented by R R Vasu of Ramanaikanpatti, pointed out that the villages situated on the banks of the Palar River once had surplus water that would be supplied to nearby towns of Tirupattur, Vaniyambadi, Ambur and Pernambut that were polluted by effluents from the leather industries. The groundwater levels in their villages, which used to be at a mere 20 feet below, has now plummeted to over 1,000 feet below the ground due to over exploitation.
“In the past ten years, around 1.5 crore litres of water has been extracted from the Palar bed everyday in and around our villages and supplied to towns. This has depleted water levels in the area leaving us high and dry now,” Vasu added.
Compounded by dwindling rainfall through successive seasons, the villages are facing an acute water scarcity that has affected farming activity besides crippling the domestic supply, he noted “While the government has been extracting water from sources near the villages all these years, water from the Integrated Cauvery Water Scheme whose pipelines pass through our villages should allow a fair share to be diverted to our villages,” he argued.
The village leaders also appealed to the State government to re-route the proposed construction of the canal under the Thenpennai-Palar intra-State River Link Project to pass through the Natrampalli villages near Avaramkuppam which will help in recharging the ground water table.
The village heads also appealed to the State government to experiment with cloud seeding technology to induce artificial rainfall in the Natrampalli block which is currently a ‘rain-shadow’ region. The panchayat presidents also passed a resolution requesting the formation of an expert committee for studying the Upper Palar belt.
