THOOTHUKUDI: It might take around three months for several salt pans in the district to return to normalcy after being ravaged in the recent torrential rains. Several lakhs of tonnes of salt is annually produced in Thoothukudi and transported across the nation. Areas including Vembar, Veppalodai, Tharuvaikulam, Ayyanarpuram, Muthaiahpuram, Mullakkadu and Arumuganeri house many salt pans in the district.
The recent unprecedented showers, however, brought the production to a complete standstill. Though the water that flooded the boundless salt pans began to recede after two days, the owners are still unable to revamp the production as stagnant puddles are commonplace here now.
Rainwater mixed with mud and gravel had flooded the saltpans and clogged the pits, said Muthulatha, owner of Latha Salt Manufacturing unit in Thoothukudi. “We are facing massive losses as several tonnes of salt washed away from our unit. The road near our production unit itself got washed away. The borewells are clogged with mud and the motors too got damaged. Making matters worse, a huge amount of water remains to recede from the saltpan. We will have to spend nearly `3 lakh just to fix the infrastructure damage and pumps,” she said.
Another salt pan owner said that when heavy rain was forecast for the region, they stopped production and covered the stock with tarpaulin. “But, nothing worked. The rain spell was so intense and incessant that all the stock got washed away,” he added.
Requesting the state government to provide them compensation, Saravana Kumar, a resident of Pullaveli village in Muthaiahpuram, said, “There are 500 families in our village and at least one-third of them rely on work at saltpans and farmlands. We lost all our belongings to the deluge, and on top of it, we can’t even earn a living as the saltpans are still inundated.”