Anbumani launches walkathon for scheme to harvest Cauvery surplus water

He says it would be a singular solution to the problems faced by Dharmapuri district

PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss launched a three-day walkathon on Friday to “create awareness” of a scheme that the party wants to be implemented at Hogenakkal to harvest Cauvery surplus water for filling the waterbodies in Dharmapuri district. 

Speaking to the media on the sidelines, he said the scheme would be a singular solution to the problems faced by the district such as unemployment, unremunerative farming, absence of industries and livelihood, distress migration, fluoride contamination of groundwater and drinking water shortage.

He said the surplus quantum that drained into the sea annually would be close to 200 tmc. The scheme would draw only 3 tmc of it. “In the last two weeks, over 2 lakh cusecs flowed in the Cauvery at Hogenakkal. This quantum, which drained into the sea, could have been used to fill lakes and ponds in Dharmapuri. It would also help to recharge groundwater aquifers, which have sunk to 700 feet-1,000 feet,” he said.

The scheme would not be detrimental to the farmers of the tail-end of the Cauvery delta, since it would only use the surplus water that drained into the sea, he said. 

The PMK president said the party had consistently been demanding the implementation of the scheme and had collected 10.30 lakh signatures from the residents of Dharmapuri and submitted them to the previous AIADMK government of Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami. He also made an electoral announcement. “But later he cryptically said there were no funds and ended it there.”

He set an ultimatum for the government to implement the scheme or his party would launch a protest.