River Noyyal
Mother Noyyal originates from the Vellingiri hills in the Western Ghats in Coimbatore district. The river flows through Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode and Karur districts before she joins the Cauvery near Noyyal village. The total length of the river course is 160 km West to East. 23 anicuts and 23 canals of 100 kms length and 31 tanks at different locations with a regulated irrigation facility was used to irrigate about 20000 acres of land and through ground water recharging, an additional 30,000 acres of land were benefited for farming activities.
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The Problem
- Until 1970’s the river used to flow perennially. But since then, the flow in the river reduced drastically so as to let the river flow only during monsoons. All the tanks in the basin used to get water from the anicuts through supply channel. Slowly as the rainfall has become erratic and people did not care to maintain the anicuts, channels and tanks, and further due to the population increase the command areas of the tanks have been converted for housing and industrial purposes.
- Recent research conducted by various Institutions, both in summer and winter seasons revealed that the content of TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) levels and poisonous substances are extremely high to the extent of causing severe damage to the human systems and ecology.
- The Orathupalayam dam, which was built in 1992 is highly polluted because of the wastewater coming from the dyeing units of Tirupur.
The overall deterioration of the river channels and tanks has taken place. Hence the citizens have felt the need for recovering the damages caused, so that the groundwater levels can be increased and the people’s requirement of potable water gets fulfilled.