date:Oct 20, 2023
Farmers at Vazhapadi, in Salem district, have turned to borewells to save their crops. Vazhapadi gets its water for drinking and irrigation from the Vashista and Vellaru rivers. The state government constructed two dams across the rivers, the Aanai Maduvu dam at Puzhuthikuttai, which can hold 7.42 million m3 of water, and the Kariakoil dam at Pappanaickenpatty, which has a storage capacity of 5.38 million m3 of water.
Villagers say both rivers have been dry for the past few years. As a result,