The Hindu               28.05.2013

Hogenakkal water for Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri districts from tomorrow

Jayalalithaa will formally commission the project through video-conferencing.

A drinking water supply project, conceived nearly 50
years ago for water-starved and fluoride-hit people of Krishnagiri and
Dharmapuri districts in north-western belt, is to become a reality on
Wednesday when Chief Minister Jayalalithaa formally commissions through
video-conferencing.

The project, now called
Hogenakkal Water Supply and Fluorosis Mitigation Project, was originally
mooted when K. Kamaraj was Chief Minister in the 1960s. Over the years,
it witnessed various changes and eventually, when the Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam was in power, the project took off.

The
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) decided to fund the 80 per
cent of the project cost, which is around Rs. 1,928 crore. A senior
official of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board, the
executing agency, says that in terms of cost, this is the biggest taken
up by the Board.

But, the significance of the project
is not just about the cost. It is going to serve people in a region,
which is among less developed in many respects.

As
per an estimate of the funding agency, the districts of Dharmapuri and
Krishnagiri had, as of 2006, about 1.1 million people living below
poverty line.

According to 12th Five Year Plan
document of the State Planning Commission, human development indices of
the Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts are 0.748 and 0.707 against the
State’s overall figure of 0.765.

Known for chronic
water shortage, the two districts receive less rainfall compared to many
other parts of the State. Their average annual rainfall is 815 mm
whereas the State’s annual rainfall is 977 mm. But, what affects them
more is the presence of fluoride, harmful to the human body, in the
groundwater. People suffer from dental and skeletal fluorosis, says a
note prepared by the funding agency.

A document of
the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department [under whose
administrative control comes the TWAD Board] states that among 3.8 lakh
school students assessed for dental fluorosis, the intensity of the
problem was severe in respect of three per cent of the students while it
was moderate in the case of 10 per cent.

Taking into
account all these aspects, the authorities have designed the project,
which will benefit about 3.3 million spread over three municipalities,
17 town panchayats and 6,755 rural habitations in the two districts.

Using
Cauvery as the source, the project can take care of the requirements of
four million. On completion of the project, all rural habitations will
have the prescribed norm of 40 litres per capita per day (LPCD) and the
urban local bodies, 135 LPCD, adds the official.