Water level in Athoor dam declines to six feet

With very meagre rain in the catchments in July and early August, water level in Athoor Kamarajar Dam has touched rock bottom, forecasting the worst drinking water crisis in the coming months in Dindigul town.

At present, water level has gone down to six feet in dam. Water supply is being made once in 10 days in low-lying areas where pumping was not required and once in 12 days on the outskirts of Dindigul.

Scorching sun near the dam site accelerates evaporation of water manifold. With a patch of water in one corner, vast areas of the dam bed wear a desert look and have become grazing ground for cattle and horses.

If storage falls further, Dindigul Municipality cannot draw water from the dam and will have to depend on supply wells near the dam site.

Cleaning and de-silting of these wells were done when R. Thiagarajan was Collector in 2002. Timely desilting of all these wells prevented water shortage then.

The municipality had leased out maintenance of pumping station on an annual contract for Rs. five lakh.

With no adequate security to the dam and the pumping station, one or two workers have been operating the pumps.

“We pump five million litres per day (mld) of water to Dindigul,” says one worker.

Two mld of water come to the main tank from Cauvery Drinking Water Scheme once in a week and five mld from Athoor Dam, says an official at pumping station near Rock Fort.

With this quantity, the municipality can manage the supply efficiently. But failure to plug breaches in several places including the main pipe line, just 300 metre away from the dam drains makes the job of officials tough. Thousands of litres of drinking water drain into a private coconut farm every day.

Sporadic rain did not improve ground water table, said locals. Plugging of breaches and replacement of damaged pipe lines alone will help the common man.