Kosasthalaiyar river basin receives its 8th check dam

The department completed building the check dam between Pudukuppam and Kuthuraipallam villages, located downstream of Karanodai bridge in the Kosasthalaiyar river basin. “All the villages located in the Kosasthalaiyar river basin are the flood-prone areas,” said an official from the Water Resources Department, adding, “We targeted to complete works before the monsoon to augment the groundwater here, and have successfully completed the project.”

The check dam across the river is 335 metre wife, with a height of 1.2 metre. It would help increase the water storage and recharge of groundwater wells, which would benefit the villages in the vicinity, including Pudhukuppam, Gnayiru, Jagannathapuram, Nerkundram and Kuthiraipattu. These villages are almost completely dependent on the traditional open wells and borewells for irrigation purposes.

The project aims to recharge the groundwater table within a 10-km radius, said the official from WRD, pointing out that water from around 300 borewells was being used now to irrigate the nearly 400 hectares of agriculture land at five villages. The construction works of the check dam began in the end of June.

The WRD is set to build a new check dam at Bandikavanur in Tiruvallur district, around 30 kilometers from the city. “We are waiting for the order from the government to construct a 400-metre wide check dam between Karanodai and Chennakuppam villages in Bandikavanur. Once we receive the order, a tender will be floated, and the construction work will be taken up,” the official said.

Check dams are built to save water that would otherwise drain into the sea through the Ennore Creek. In 2016, the WRD had proposed a project to construct various artificial recharge structures, with an aim to augment the groundwater table across the city.