DINDIGUL | March 23, 2015:
The dry bed of Athoor tank on Sunday.
Indiscriminate sand mining in several rural tanks by local bigwigs who have political support has created an acute water crisis in more than 20 villages in Athoor block in the district even before the commencement of summer.
Some local people quarry sand in a large scale, using giant earth moving equipment and tipper lorries showing least concern for basic guidelines.
Now, they lift 50 to 70 lorry loads of sand at Karunkulam, Nadu Kulam, Bolasamudrakulam, Kadirayankkulam, Athikulam, Sengulam, Pulvetti tank and Ambathurai rural tanks in Athoor union every day. With the sand bed getting depleted , these tanks turned dry, the villagers said.
These tanks had comfortable storage of water a few months back, thanks to the sharp showers and good storage in Athoor dam.
Now water level had gone down in bore wells and open wells at these villages.
Palayamkottai, Sedapatti, Koolampatti, Mallaiyapuram, Akkaraipatti, Sokkalingapuram, Azhagarnaickenpatt, Praipatti Bodikamanvadi, Veerasikkampatti, Chithaiyankottai and Nadupatti were some of the worst-affected villages.
Sand that acted as sponge to store water in the tanks was wiped out completely. With no water in rural tanks and bore wells, the villagers had to trek long distances to fetch a pot of water for drinking and other purposes, worried Chitra of Sokkalingapuram.
“The situation will be worse in April and May. Water crisis would haunt us,” said Suresh of Chithaiyankottai.
“We are tired of making complaints to the panchayat union and district administration to stop illegal sand lifting from rural tanks. The elected representatives of Athoor panchayat union too have been tacitly supporting the sand lifting,” the residents complained.
(Source: http://www.thehindu.com/)