Line departments directed to repair water storing infrastructure before monsoon Vellore Collector P. Sankar has directed the officials of the line departments such as Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board, Public Works Department (PWD), Rural Development Department and the Revenue Department to carry out repairs to the water bodies well before the onset of the north-east monsoon to improve holding capacity of the tanks and ponds and facilitate recharge of groundwater. Inaugurating a one-day training camp on rainwater harvesting (RWH) for presidents of village panchayats in Vellore district here on Thursday to create awareness on the need to improve rainwater harvesting structures, Mr. Sankar said there has been a deficiency of rainfall to the extent of 16 to 20 per cent in the past decade, except for the years 2005, 2007 and 2010, as against the average annual rainfall of 953.4 mm. As a result of this, the groundwater level has gone down from a depth of seven metres to 24 metres. Therefore, the existing artificial water recharge infrastructure such as check dams, percolation ponds, and percolation pits have to be desilted and repaired, while the deep borewells have to be flushed. The line departments should immediately start the work and complete it well before the onset of the monsoon, he said. Painting a grim scenario of the groundwater position in Vellore district, the Collector said that out of the 20 blocks in the district, 14 blocks - Anaicut, Arcot, Gudiyatham, Jolarpet, K.V. Kuppam, Kandili, Kaniyambadi, Katpadi, Madhanur, Natrampalli, Pernambut, Sholinghur, Tirupattur and Vellore - were over-exploited, while three (Alangayam, Nemili and Thimiri) were critical blocks with 90-100 per cent exploitation, one (Walajapet) semi-critical block (with 70-90 per cent exploitation) and two (Arakkonam and Kaveripakkam) were safe blocks, where the exploitation was less than 70 per cent. Effective system The Collector said that if RWH was done properly in the houses, one could save 17,000 litres of water through the RWH structures in huts, 52,000 litres in tiled-houses and 1.74 lakh litres in multi-storeyed houses and buildings in a year, considering that there would be rains for 50 days in a year. RWH is essential in a district like Vellore which is dependent on groundwater. While existing RWH structures should be desilted and repaired, new ones should be created where they did not exist, he said. Line departments directed to repair water storing infrastructure before onset of north-east monsoon