A city dweller relying on a can of packaged drinking water is a very common sight these days. With situation being such and almost eight in every ten houses buying packaged drinking water in the city, one would call the farmers on the fringes of the ever running Bhavani River “fools”, for they too have resorted to buying packaged drinking water.
Not because they are buying their water, but because they have perennial water resource just a few steps away from their doorsteps, yet buy water from external source. It is a blessing to live along the river and an even more blessing in the eyes of city dwellers to live with it. Yet, what surprises those from afar is why farmers are buying water when they have river Bhavani to quench their thirst.
Thanks to the development juggernaut, not only the farmers, even the cattle they live upon have started abandoning those “poisoned waters” in order to live.
Water gives hope; Water gives joy; Water gives a peace of mind that is not easy to get; the sight of water energises the eyes and refreshes the body; more and more, water is a symbol of life and it gives life. However, in the words of farmers near Mettupalayam, Thekkampatti and other villages who live on the banks of Bhavani River, “water gifts a slow death”.
According to M. Su. Mani, Secretary of the Save Bhavani Trust, it all started in 2011 when the State Government constructed a barrage right across the river near Karattumedu to produce electricity. Five years later, another barrage was constructed blocking an ample portion of the river on most occasions, thereby creating a mini check dam.
Apart from the fact that blocking a river would always have its implications, in the case of Bhavani, industries surrounding river started letting their wastes into the river. Those who cannot, mixed it with the ground water, thereby letting it indirectly into the river, especially between the two barrages where the water is stagnant for most part.
There are paper units, textile units and dying units and according to Dr. N. Mageshwaran, who is also a member of the trust, the effluence let out by such industries along with their sewage would increase the levels of Coli form and Total Dissolved Solid (TDS) in the river gifting the people with a variety of diseases at long term consumption including Liver, Kidney and Skin cancers.
The effect was immediate ever since the inception of the barrages as the number of inpatients at the Mettupalayam Government Hospital increased by more than ten times. That was not it, crops including plantain and coconut starting yielding less than fifty per cent, waters in wells turned blue, green and what not, and fishes started dying because of low oxygen level in the waters in the wells close by and the river itself.
And it so happened that by interacting very close with the river, many farmers went infertile in villages close by owing to the consumption of vegetables grown using Bhavani River water.
There are many ways to look at it and solutions should be discussed in detail to resolve all the complications caused by the river itself. Ironically, the water in the river is also directed to villages in Tirupur and Erode without clearing out the danger it brings with it.
“We are almost in the midway of losing the river that brought us up. There are many examples outside including Orathupalayam reservoir in Tirupur of what such situations can do to a river. This situation would not only kill the river, but also the people who live on it,” says Mani.
The trust members on the other hand, voice for the closure of the barrages and the stoppage of letting out effluences of the industries into the river. “The state is in such a situation where water is so scarce. Yet, the Government is not worried about private companies destroying such a free flowing river,” ponders P.Parameshwaran, coordinator of the trust.
The members have decided to take up their awareness to the next level by conducting street meetings at various places around the river. They had initiated various rallies in the past.
Seeing all the injustice that is done to the river and the people, a very old classic song of former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandiran comes to the mind. “Thirudanaai paarthu thirundha vittal, thiruttai olikka mudiyadhu (Theft cannot be eradicated unless the thief changes his ways).