Farmers’ participation may infuse fresh life into Vaduvur lake

After a long struggle, the farmers witnessed the desilting of the 316-acre lake that would boost irrigation in 10,000 acres of land, aiding their efforts for a better crop yield. Besides, the farmers were also allowed to dig up silt which could be used as fertilizer.

The desilting work was inaugurated last week by the Food and Civil Supplies Minister R Kamaraj. He said that the desilting would be carried out on 100 acres of the lake, at a depth of one metre. The process would remove 4 lakh cubic meters of silt which can be used as fertilizer, he added.

Meanwhile, farmers dependent on the Vaduvur lake for irrigation charged that the desilting work was dropped after the lake was handed over to the Forest Department in 1999 as it was converted into a bird sanctuary.

“The government was keen on expansion of forest area and so the desilting work was dropped affecting irrigation of more than 10,000 acres of land around the Vaduvur region,” said Karthikeyan of the Coordination Committee of All farmers association. He urged the PWD authorities to strengthen the bunds of the lake using mud. “All of the trees on the lake-bed should be uprooted and replanted along the banks of the lake to help store more water. Only then water storage to the expected volume would be possible,” he said.

The farmers also said that proper desilting of the draining channel Kannanaru would boost irrigation in the area. Meanwhile, the farmers have raised their voice against the promotion of forest area saying that it would affect the water source in the lake as it would cause silt deposition. “We want our lake back for irrigation. At least half of the area should be spared for water storage,” said Malarmannan of the Vaduvur Lake Retrieval Committee.

Local farmers said that some influential people have been encroaching into water bodies and this practice has been going on for decades, but officials turn a blind eye towards such malpractice. A canal which was previously 16 feet wide and six feet deep and branched out from Kallanai stream has shrunk to just six feet in width and three feet in depth as there was no water flow for the past 10 years due to encroachments. “We suspect that there is a nexus between the officials and politicians that facilitates the encroachment of water bodies. It is the same case with almost all the water-bodies across the state,” farmers who use the Kallanai stream for irrigating their fields said.

A lone consolation for the water-starved agricultural community is the farm ponds. The state government has been encouraging farmers to set up farm ponds to store rain water as well as groundwater for their cultivation needs and Tiruchy district horticulture department has supported as many as 27 such ponds with a 50 per cent subsidy under the National Horticulture Mission. According to the directions of the department officials, ponds have been established at Thuraiyur, Uppliyapuram, Thottiyam and Musiri taluks of Tiruchy district. The Tiruvarur collector L Nirmal Raj recently announced that a fund of Rs 22 crore has been allocated for as many as 2,200 farm ponds with 100 per cent subsidy, a measure that would remarkably help tackle water requirements of the farmers in the district. The collector said the farmers could contact the officials to get farm pond dug in their field with 100% subsidy.