Southern districts may get entangled in acute drinking water crisis as water level in dams falling rapidly

The four southern districts may get entangled in acute drinking water crisis during this summer as water level in all major dams feeding millions of population in these districts besides nourishing over a lakh hectares of land is dwindling fast due to the intense dry spell prevailing in the catchment areas along the Western Ghats.

As the 122-km-long Tamirabharani traverses from Tirunelveli’s Papanasam to Thoothukudi’s Punnakayal, 236 infiltration wells have been dug along the perennial river to supply drinking water to a few million population in Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi and Virudhunagar districts. The Papanasam and Manimuthar dams, having cumulative storage capacity of 11,011 million cubic feet and hence feed over 85,000 acres of wetlands in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts, now have only 2,890 mcft of water, which cannot even meet the drinking water needs of Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Tenkasi and Virudhunagar districts during this summer. Hence, the industries of Thoothukudi district, which are relying upon the Tamirabharani to meet their water needs, are being told repeatedly to set up their captive desalination plants for their industrial requirements.