Stagnant rainwater put to good use

Stagnant rainwater put to good use

Water is diverted into farmlands through newly dug trenches that are linked to concrete channels

Several hundred families in Tiruninravur, near Avadi, heaved a sigh of relief as stagnant water that had brought life to a standstill in the locality, began to be discharged on Tuesday.

Tiruvallur district officials said that through newly-dug trenches the water was being diverted into farmlands (meant for paddy cultivation) via concrete channels which were linked to the Tiruninravur lake.

PIL behind move

This action by the district administration to rid the locality of what has been a stubborn case of inundation follows a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by T.K. Rajendran, a farmer from Tiruninravur, in the Madras High Court on Monday.

He filed the plea against a proposed move to open the shutters of Tiruninravur lake to drain out the stagnant water in the locality. Such an action, the plea said, would have resulted in severe flooding of farmlands, making them unfit for seasonal cultivation.

Areas that remained inundated even after the rains had stopped include Periyar Nagar, Muththamizh Nagar and Wadeshi Nagar.

The affected areas have around 2,500 families which include 1,000 families staying in the tenements of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB), officials said.

Spread over 300 hectares, Thiruninravur lake is among the biggest in the district. The district has around 650 tanks to irrigate 43,496 hectares for paddy.

At present, the Tiruninravur lake irrigates around 150 hectares of agricultural land. Last month, the lake reached its full storage capacity of 139 million cubic feet making it difficult for the officials to drain excess rainwater from the neighbourhood into the lake. The district officials have said that when the stagnant water drained from the marooned areas, encroachments in the lake would be studied with a view to having them removed.