TNERC's draft amendment may 'deplete' state's water table further

At a time when the Tamil Nadu government took a stand against the Centre’s decision of ending free power supply to farmers, the state’s move to increase the number of pump sets per farmer has come as a surprise and shock to many. While the farmers who were waiting for long to get free electricity have welcomed the move, experts have expressed concern over the rampant use of groundwater.

The farmers in Tamil Nadu are mostly dependent on Cauvery water or rainfall for irrigation. When the rainfall isn’t sufficient and if the Mettur dam has not been opened by the government, the farmers extract groundwater. In order to help the farmers, the state government provides them free electricity to run their 5 hp and 7 hp pump sets and there are about 21 lakh farmers in the state who are benefitted from this.

According to farmer leaders, there are five lakh farmers still waiting to get a free power connection for the past 20 years. The pending applications are cleared based on the seniority or the farmers can opt for tatkal where they need to pay a higher amount to get the application cleared.

In this backdrop, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) has come up with a draft amendment to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Distribution Code, which experts fear, will have a direct impact on the groundwater table.

The draft amendment says “the regulation under 29(2)(i) has reduced agriculture connection service requirement to 0.5 acres with physical segregation of well farming the basis.” As on date, there is no acreage yardstick for farmers to get free electricity.

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“The TNERC could have come up with this draft because the state might have given pressure to disperse the pending application for free electricity. If the amendment is implemented then the number of applicants for free power will increase. On one hand, it will increase the financial burden on the state and on the other hand, it will have an impact on groundwater” said K. Vishnu Mohan Rao, researcher, Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group, Chennai.

“By reducing the acreage and using physically segregated wells as the basis for getting agriculture service connection, it will pressure the groundwater resources or the aquifer holding water. The rampant usage of pump sets will also affect the neighbouring farmer, who doesn’t have a pump set,” he said.

“This will make farmers extract water from multiple extractive points where water will be pumped out of a contiguous water aquifer resulting in the rapid depletion of groundwater. When the state often witnesses monsoon vagaries, if the aquifers are not recharged by rainfall, then it will create a drought-like situation” added Rao.

Agreeing with his view, ‘Cauvery’ Dhanapal, President, Federation of Tamil Nadu Farmer’s Association, said when there are people who put 30 borewells in an acre, such amendment will make groundwater table deplete even deeper.

“This should be viewed in the backdrop of the release of water from the Mettur dam. When the water is released, about 2000 TMC water is taken in the upper reach say Erode, Karur, and Namakkal. The politicians in these areas suck water through borewells. By the time the water reaches Thanjavur, the level would have decreased. So after Thanjavur, the water will not reach the districts like Tiruvarur, newly created Myladuthurai and Nagapattinam. At that point, the farmers will start using groundwater. Already about 15 blocks in Nagapattinam district have come under the ‘black belt’ region, where saltwater has been found. On top of that if such amendments are implemented, think of the situation,” he said.

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The government’s lackadaisical approach in desolating the channels is also pointed as a reason, why Cauvery water will not reach the tail end of Delta regions.

“With the amount allocated by the government, we cannot desilt even 10 per cent of channels,” said Dhanapal.

Before TNERC comes up with such amendments, Rao suggests that they should consult other stakeholders such as agriculture and water resources departments.

However, former technical director of TNERC, Muthusamy, differs. According to him, the amendment aims to help small farmers.

“This particular amendment was suggested five years ago. Its main aim was to include small farmers and not deprive them of an opportunity of using free electricity. If a farmer has four or five acres, and if he divides and distributes it to his sons and grandsons, they face difficulties in using water from only one well. But if this amendment gets implemented, they can have additional borewells” he said.

Terming the argument that the amendment will increase the applications for free electricity baseless, Muthusamy argues that it will cost at least ₹3 lakh for a farmer if he needs to have a borewell and most of the farmers are not in a condition to spend that much.

“It is the government that should take a call on allowing borewells in water-stressed districts. Already some districts have banned digging borewells” he said.

When asked about the delay in dispersing pending applications, Muthusamy said that the applications are cleared according to the electricity surplus.

“Now we have surplus power. So the applications are cleared. But on the other side the subsidy portion of the government will also increase” he said adding that in the next few years the farmers won’t depend on the government for free electricity.

“In many places, farmers are gradually turning to solar power. If they are able to spend some two or three lakhs, for the next 20 years they don’t have to depend on government for electricity,” said Muthusamy.