Water war turns into key agrarian issue in Dharapuram bypoll

COIMBATORE: With farmers’ distress emerging as a major concern in the Dharapuram Assembly by-election, a bitter water-sharing dispute between the Parambikulam-Aliyar Project (PAP) ayacut and Uppar Dam-dependent farmers has turned into a politically sensitive issue in the constituency.

While farmers dependent on Uppar Dam are demanding water to protect their crops amid drought-like conditions, PAP ayacut farmers are strongly opposing any diversion, contending that the storage in the Thirumoorthi reservoir is insufficient even to meet their own irrigation requirements.

The issue acquired a political dimension recently when PAP-dependent farmers confronted TVK candidate P Sathyabama during her campaign in Kundadam and questioned her over the proposed release of PAP water to Uppar Dam. PAP Planning Committee chairman K Paramasivam said water could be released to Uppar only if there was adequate surplus in the PAP system.

“Water can be released only when the PAP system has satisfactory storage and surplus water is available. There is no justification for releasing water compulsorily when the PAP system itself is struggling to meet the requirements of its ayacut farmers,” he said.

According to farmers, the proposed release would not immediately solve the water crisis faced by Uppar-dependent farmers. Water released from Thirumoorthi reservoir has to travel nearly 50 km through the PAP main canal and another 40 km through the Uppar Odai before reaching Uppar Dam.

The Uppar Odai has several check dams and nearby ponds, farmers said, adding that the watercourse is currently dry and overgrown with ‘seemai karuvelam’ (prosopis) vegetation. They contend that unless the watercourse is cleared and sufficient flow is ensured, even a release from Thirumoorthi reservoir may not result in substantial inflow into Uppar Dam.

The competing demands have intensified amid a sharp decline in water availability in the PAP system. Farmers said the system had around 23 TMC of water at this time last year, compared with only about eight TMC now. Around 6,000 acres in Dharapuram are dependent on Uppar Dam, while the PAP system caters to about 60,000 acres in the region, according to farmer representatives.

PAP farmers say they are already struggling to protect their own crops as water has not been released adequately and irrigation channels remain uncleared. “Of the nearly 1,800 km of channels requiring desilting, around 200 km falls within Dharapuram constituency,” they said.

PAP Distributory Committee chairman in Kundadam P. Eswaran said farmers had repeatedly met ministers and senior officials seeking funds for desilting and maintenance, but the works were yet to begin.

“Coconut trees across lakhs of acres are drying up. Farmers have met several ministers and officials over the past few months seeking funds to desilt the channels, but the work has not started. Unless the vegetation is cleared, water will not reach the tail-end areas,” he said.

Farmers also point out that water was expected to be released for the PAP irrigation areas in August, but the release has not taken place as anticipated. They said the government’s proposal to release water to Uppar Dam had been deferred following protests from PAP farmers.

The stakes are particularly high in Dharapuram, where coconut cultivation dominates the agricultural landscape, with farmers estimating that coconut plantations cover nearly one lakh acres. Vegetable crops, drumstick and maize are also cultivated in the region.

With their plantations under stress, farmers say they are being forced to buy tanker water to keep the coconut trees alive. “Farmers are paying around Rs 6,000 for a tanker carrying about 24,000 litres of water to save the coconut trees. If there is no rain for another month, the trees could completely dry up,” Eswaran said.

As the by-election campaign gathers pace, the PAP-Uppar dispute has brought the constituency’s water crisis squarely into the political spotlight, with rival groups of farmers demanding that their competing irrigation needs be addressed without jeopardising their livelihoods.