Restoration of Water Canals Back to Life at Moolangudi in Tamil Nadu

Thiruvarur:  Reaching out to the farming community, IndianOil, under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), has restored after de-silting 9.35 km canal network in Moolangudi village, Thiruvarur District of Tamil Nadu. The canal, blocked and chocked for past five years, has been brought back to life by restoring flow of water to the farm fields of hundreds of farmers. In addition, de-silting of canals lead to better ground water availability.

 

Moolangudi is a revenue village falling under Nannilam taluk of Tiruvarur district in Tamil Nadu. IndianOil is implementing a natural gas pipeline to Cauvery Basin Refinery through this village. The village has a population of 988 with 238 households and 71% population belongs to deprived community.

 

The livelihood of the villagers are dependent predominantly on agriculture. The soil in this village is suitable for growing paddy, green gram and horse-gram among other crops. Agriculture in Moolangudi is largely dependent on water released from Cauvery River from Kallanai Dam in Trichy and further dependent on water from bore wells. Cultivation in Moolangudi village is carried out throughout the year.

 

But from past five years, the 5.35 km long Moolangudi ‘main canal’ from one of the Cauvery rivulets and eight sub canals, namely, Nadhuma Canal, Pallantrangal Canal, Pappanadhi Vaikal, School Vaikal, Field Vaikal, Vadumbu Canal, Moovalai Channel and Odai Channel of combined length of 9.35 km have been lying chocked as there has been no maintenance or no de-silting of these canals for restoring the water flow. Due to this, villagers were facing difficulties in cultivating the land thereby their livelihoods were affected. Further, the poor condition of the canals caused to flooding in upstream areas during heavy rains.

 

Based on the need, IndianOil, Southern Region Pipelines (SRPL) decided to take up restoration work under CSR at a cost of about Rs. 10 lakh to benefit entire farming community in Moolangudi village, which is dependent on this main Canal. IndianOil, after meeting the village authorities, respective government departments and District Collector, has taken up the restoration activities for the entire length in two phases. In first phase the ‘main canal’ was taken up for de-silting and restoration and in second phase sub-canals were taken up under Corporate Social Responsibility.