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There is a fall in the groundwater table in 19 districts of TN
Posted on: 15/May/2019 9:42:57 AM
In the last year, TN did not get enough rainfall and there was deficiency in the rainfall in both monsoons and it was 69 percent. The news that has come out is PWD or Public Works Department had identified as many as 19 districts belonging to TN and in these districts the groundwater table has been falling down when compared to the last year in the same period of time. In this decade, atleast 7 districts such as Tiruvallur, Vellore, Dharmapuri, Tiruvarur, Perambalur, Ariyalur and Sivaganga saw the groundwater table reach new low.
It must be taken into account that the drastic reduction was found in Perambalur (5.5 m), Thiruvannamalai (4.55 m) Vellore (3.27 m) and Dharmapuri (3.13 m) present in the northern belt. This was as per the monthly assessment by state ground and surface water resources data centre.
On Tuesday, 14th May 2019, the state government made an appeal to the people of TN to use water in a sensible manner as the water supply by TWAD board fell to 1856 million litres a day through 556 combined water supply supplies, mainly from Cauvery river bed. There have been many protests in TN regarding drinking water becoming scarce is known. It is important to mention here that the villagers belonging to Nallampillai panchayat near Mannaparai staged a road roko with empty pots as their repeated pleas for water supply failed to evoke positive response from the district administration. The point is districts like Dharmapuri, Perambalur, Naakkal, Salem and Coimbatore were worst affected areas with poor groundwater table this year.
According to the managing director of TWAD, Mr. Mahesvaran, efforts have been taken to improve the efficiency in distribution. The extreme weather has led to water leakage and bursting of the water pipelines and these issues have been corrected. He want the people to come forward and complain about the illegal tapping and about the unauthorized connections.
It is well known that half the population in TN is benefited by TWAD and the remaining by the local bodies. To ensure the supply of water to tail end areas, agency is said to have deployed about 260 special committees in the state of TN.
As per a hydrogeologist, 73 percent of TN has hard rock terrain and the groundwater is confined to fractured, jointed and weathered zones only. He explained about how hundreds of artificial recharge structures have been built and maintained by several agencies like PWD, TWAD, Forestry and agriculture etc in the past decade.
