Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Stop-dams to store surplus rain water

One of the important inputs for profitable farming is irrigation through canals from dams and reservoirs or from underground sources. Umpteen are the ways and means by which we can store rain water for economical use during non-monsoon days, but unfortunately the successive governemnts both in the Centre and the states have been found wanting in their attempts to do the needful so far with the result most of the rain water gets drained into the ocean for ages. Construction of structures for storing rain water in several ways is one of the most important infrastructure development projects for agrarian revolution and prosperity to the farming community. A writer by name S Sheikh Abdul Khader ( Dinmani Daily, Tuesday, December 6, 2011) has emphasised the need for a series of stop dams and check dams along the river Tamirabarani in South Tamil Nadu so that the surplus rain water can be conserved for irrigaion and drinking water purposes in Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts during lean days. As per his reporting the river originates from the Western Ghats (Poongulam) and runs for 120 KMs irrigating as much as 2.55 lakh acres before meeting the sea. It is a perennial river by receiving rains from both the South-West and North-East monsoons.

The author of this posting too has been advocating this idea for the last 30 years in several of his writngs on water resources of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states.

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