Date:26/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/26/stories/2007092652160300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

“Preserve at least one tank in every village”

To sustain infiltration, says former Chief Engineer of PWD

MADURAI: Every panchayat should have at least 10 per cent of its surface area for water bodies to induce infiltration and recharge of ground water table, according to former Chief Engineer of Public Works Department, S. Panchanathan.

Addressing a national convention on tank-based watershed development here on Tuesday, Dr. Panchanathan said that at present water bodies constituted only around 3 per cent of the surface area.

Tracing the changing pattern of irrigation in the country, he said that canal and tank irrigation formed the majority and wells irrigated only 15 per cent of the land during independence.

In the 1970s, canal, tank and well irrigation systems had equal shares.

However, in the 1990s the contribution of canal and tank irrigation drastically fell down and wells irrigated around 47 per cent of the land.

Tanks had been the backbone of irrigation. The importance attached to it was evident from the Tamil poetess Avvaiyar’s advice to one of the Pandiya Kings.

“She asked the king to stop war and instead concentrate on maintaining lakes and tanks,” Dr. Panchanathan said. People then had realised that maintenance of water bodies was important to sustain life.

The uniformity of depth of tanks had been lost due to silt formation over the years.

“The tanks that were cylindrical in shape had become cones and consequently their water holding capacity has been reduced to one-third,” he said.

The former Chief Engineer urged the people to restore, maintain and preserve at least one water body in every panchayat with well defined boundaries and uniform depth like that of temple tanks.