Tuticorin District Workshop

As most of the river basins in Tamil Nadu is reeling under scarcity, Thamrabarani is no exception in this respect. The river is the main source of water for many traditional tanks in Tirunelveli and Tuticorn districts. There are four distributaries namely 1). Maruthoor Melakkal, 2). Maruthoor Keelakkal, 3). Srivaikundam vadakal and 4). Srivaikundam thenkal that caters water to Tuticorn District. The State has formed 162 and 66 WUAs respectively under TNFMIS Act 2001 to promote participatory irrigation management.

On 29th May 2004, TVNN organized district level workshop ‘Water and Farmers Network’ exclusively for the representatives of WUAs of Tuticorn District. The workshop organized at Srivaikundam, Tuticorn District draw good response from the farmers, department officials and media. Farmers from all taluks of Tuticorn district and department officials like Mr. T. Shanmuga Sundaram, Executive Engineer of WRO, PWD, Mr. S. Subbaiah, SDO WRO, PWD, Mr. S. Arumugam, PA to District Collector for Agriculture and Mr. Raman, ASCO, CADA participated in the workshop.

Mr. A. Ramasamy, the president of JalaSpandana-Erode, Mr. A.V.S. Velumayil, President of TVNN, Mr. R. Doraiswamy, Convener, JalaSpandana-Bangalore, and Mr. K. Thachinamurthy, Coordinator TVNN spoke in the workshop. They explained the objectives of JalaSpandana and TVNN, need for farmers network in water sector, etc. They also said that Mr. Raymond Peter, the architect of Andhra Pradesh Participatory Irrigation Management Act 1997 is now the Executive Director of International Network for Participatory Irrigation Management at Washington DC. INPIM is now supporting JalaSpandana and TVNN to promote PIM activities in South India, through SaciWATERs.

Mr. T. Shanmugasundaram, Executive Engineer, Palayankottai inaugurated the workshop and released the quarterly newsletter ‘Neervalam’, and was received by Mr. Arumugam P.A. to District Collector. He suggested farmers to utilize this workshop to develop their effective participation in Irrigation Management and assured his cooperation to strengthen WUAs in the region.

Mr. S. Subbaiah, SDO, WRO, PWD, shared his difficulties in water distribution between head and tail reach farmers. He also explained that watering with long interval method called as ‘Kaichalum paichalum’ resulted in good yield. He announced the training programme schedules of Irrigation Management Training Institute (IMTI), Thuvakudy, Tiruchy.

Mr. S. Arumugam, PA to Collector (Agri), Tuticorin, appealed to farmers to involve fully in government policy and programmes, which will benefit entire society. He illustrated the success of the peoples’ participation in ‘food for work’ program undertaken in rural areas. Mr. S. Raman, ASCO, from CADA, Agri. Engineering department explained the process of forming WUAs under CADA programme, which enabled the department to restructure and hold elections to WUAs in WRCP areas.

Mr. S.D. Nicholas, farmer from traditional tank user’s society and a leader in this area shared his views also what do people think about PIM programme. He expressed suspicion over the effective implementation of PIM Act with the backdrop of the experience in Andhra Pradesh, which did not conduct elections to WUAs after its first term of office and also not forming project committee even in the first term. He urged that the representatives of WUAs should be given opportunity to share their views about PIM programme with World Bank delegates. He said there is always a danger that the officials while interpreting peoples’ views give wrong information to the delegates.

After prolonged discussion over the issues at policy and field level by all the participants, the major question that arise among them was ‘How to address all these issues? The discussion lead to a conclusion that there has to be a district level water users committee with fair representation to all Canal and reach to take up the issue on strong footing. T They decided to join TVNN and extend its activity at district level through this committee on a voluntary basis.

The Tuticorn district water users committee functioning under TVNN was formed based on fair representation to all the canals and the reach. The TVNN District Committee of Tuticorin consists of Mr. Udayasooriyan – President, Mr. Ve. Shanmugasundaram, Mr. Alangaram, Mr. Sivananavel, Mr. Vaikundaraman, Mr. R.S. Murgesan, Mr. John, Mr. M. Mathivanan, and Mr. S.D. Nicholas are the committee members.