Work under way to raise height of Kosasthalaiyar bund.

Kosasthalaiyar river in Tiruvallur district, whose waters inundated villages in the neighbourhood during the December deluge in 2015, is now running dry in several places. And, to strengthen the river’s bund that was breached in several points, the Water Resources Department (WRD) is carrying out work on improving the waterway.

The river runs for a distance of 136 km and drains into the Ennore creek. In about a 10-km stretch of the river, breaches in the bund have been identified at nearly 20 points, including Vellivoyal, Vannipakkam, Madiyur and Napalayam.

The Kosasthalaiyar carried nearly 1.2 lakh cubic feet second (cusecs) water during the floods in November and December last year as the shutters from the Poondi reservoir were opened. This was probably the first time in two decades that the river flowed beyond its capacity, according to WRD. As the river had not been desilted for several years, the floodwater inundated neighbouring villages and fields. As a measure aimed at improving the river, the department is now increasing the height of the earthen bund to its original height of 5 metres in areas downstream of Karanodai bridge such as Kudiraipallam, Pudhukuppam and Kosavampalayam.

However, the river bed is dry now as a huge volume of water drained into the sea and also percolated into the ground owing to its sandy layer. Water stagnated for over a month near check dams. While the river bund is being improved, funds are still awaited to carry out repairs in check dams across the river such as the Tamaraipakkam anicut.

WRD sources said work was on for over a month now. The bund was only one m high in several places and the bund was being formed for a one-km distance upstream of Karanodai bridge. “We are creating inlets for floodwater from fields and neighbouring villages to be linked to the river where breaches occurred,” said an official.

In some places such as Jagannathapuram, Pudhukuppam and Nerkundram, the bund was breached for illicit sand mining. Measures are being taken to build a new bund there. However, not much sand has accumulated in these places for mining and no quarries are functioning as of now, sources said. The Rs. 5-crore project is likely to be completed in six months.

The Hindu