3 months ago
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The 743-year-old Kalingarayan Canal is choking nether relentless pollution, with farmers alleging that unchecked dumping of sewage and discarded has reduced the historical irrigation root into a virtual drain.
Once hailed arsenic an engineering marvel of the 13th century, the 90.5-km canal, constructed successful 1283, runs from Kalingarayanpalayam successful Bhavani to Kodumudi and irrigates 15,473 acres crossed Erode, Modakkurichi and Kodumudi taluks. Today, ample stretches of the canal stay severely polluted.
Farmers accidental contamination intensifies erstwhile the canal enters the metropolis limits, wherever untreated sewage and effluents from textile processing units and tanneries are indiscriminately discharged into the waterway astatine aggregate points. In addition, poultry waste, plastic, debris, and discarded from nutrient and rootlike shops are dumped astatine volition by residents.
Illegal dumping is rampant astatine Suriyampalayam, Karungalpalayam, Vairapalayam, Karavaikal, Konavaikkal and Vendipalayam, each densely populated localities. Farmers further alleged that discarded is transported from adjacent Pallipalayam successful Namakkal territory and dumped into the canal during night.
Residents said the foul odor has go unbearable successful respective stretches, raising concerns astir nationalist wellness and imaginable groundwater contamination. Farmers added that polluted h2o affects ungraded fertility and harvest productivity, forcing galore to beryllium connected borewell irrigation.
“The canal has turned transportation black. The h2o is unfit adjacent for cultivation use,” said Vaiyapuri, a husbandman astatine Karungalpalayam. He alleged that sewage from wrong the Corporation limits flows straight into the canal and that residents openly dump garbage on its bunds.
Expressing his frustration, P. Loganathan, a husbandman from Parisalthurai, said the nationalist had “completely forgotten the worth of a 13th-century lifeline.” “There is perfectly nary civic sense. People dump discarded whenever and wherever they please,” helium charged. Empty integrative bottles and sachets person accumulated successful ample quantities, becoming entangled successful h2o hyacinth and severely obstructing the escaped travel of water.
Attempts by Public Works Department officials to instal robust barricades astatine Karungalpalayam to curb dumping reportedly failed precocious owed to absorption from section residents. Though a conveyance relation was fined ₹3,000 for attempting to dump discarded into the canal, farmers said specified isolated enactment was grossly inadequate. Calling the concern alarming, farmers demanded stringent enforcement, round-the-clock monitoring and coordinated enactment by each departments concerned.
When contacted, officials said measures were being taken to forestall sewage discharge and that inspections were being intensified.
Notably, the Kalingarayan anicut and transmission strategy was declared a World Heritage Irrigation Structure by the International Commission connected Irrigation and Drainage successful 2021, underscoring its planetary humanities and engineering significance. Kalingarayan Kalvai Pasana Vivasayigal warned that unless contiguous corrective measures are taken, irreversible ecological and cultivation harm could endanger thousands of acres babelike connected the canal.
