Non-stop rains in the catchment areas in Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Ranipet and Tirupattur districts are filling up irrigation tanks. The irrigation tanks are maintained by the Water Resources Department (WRD).
Rains have been lashing parts of Tamil Nadu since Wednesday, November 29, 2023, and continued well into Thursday.
Together, these four districts have a total of 4,167 water bodies including 1,119 Minor Irrigation (MI) that are maintained by the Public Works Department (PWD) with rest of the water bodies such as ponds, lakes and uranis maintained by the Rural Development (RD) Department in these districts.
Among these four districts, Tiruvannmalai has the highest number of 1,886 water bodies including 600 PWD maintained irrigation tanks, followed by Ranipet district with 1,718 waterbodies (369 PWD tanks).
Continuous monitoring
“We are continuously monitoring the situation especially in Jawadhu Hills as two rivers, Naganadhi and Kamadalam have been getting high inflow of rainwater from the hills for the past few days. The Shenbagathoppu dam, which depends on the Kamadalam river in the hills, has reached 70 per cent of its total storage capacity of 287 mcft water (62 ft),” S. Raja Ganapathy, Assistant Engineer (AE), WRD (Arani sub-division), told The Hindu.
Among the four sub-divisions of irrigation tanks in Tiruvannamalai, Cheyyar has the highest number with 270 tanks, followed by Arani (173 tanks), Tiruvannamalai (140 tanks) and Sathanur dam (60 tanks). A group of three to four villages depend on each tank for irrigation.
Of the total water bodies, around 40 percent of them have reached their full capacity especially in Tiruvannamalai and Ranipet with another 10 percent of water bodies including irrigation tanks having reached 75 per cent of their total capacity on Thursday.
Key agricultural belts like Kilpennathur, Thurinjapuram, Polur and Chetpet in Tiruvannamalai, have on an average, 50 water bodies in each of these areas. Most of the water bodies in these small towns have reached their full capacity.
Vellore has a total of 807 water bodies including 101 PWD tanks covering major areas like Katpadi, Anaicut and Gudiyatham. Most of them are filling up fast, officials said.
47 flood-prone areas identified in Ranipet
Ranipet district closely follows in terms of water storage in its water bodies including 369 irrigation tanks. Areas closer to Chennai such as Arakkonam, Nemeli and Sholinghur, which together have 677 water bodies have more than one-third of their water bodies have reached total capacity with another 20 percent of them having reached over 75 per cent of their total capacity.
As part of northeast monsoon preparedness, Ranipet Collector S. Valarmathi has set up a control room at the Collectorate for rain-related problems. The helpline for Tangedco related work including damage of electric poles, transformers and low-lying electrical lines is 9498794987. .
For other rain-related issues, residents can dial 1077 and 04172-271766. People can also send pictures and videos of affected areas through 8300929401 round the clock.
A total of 47 flood prone areas have been identified in Ranipet district. People in these areas have been asked to move to safer places. Temporary shelters have also been set up by the district administration.
