Why there is no water in palar?
The average rainfall in entire Palar river basin is low. This river basin used to suffer
from frequent droughts. There has been no full scale flow for the past 10 years.
However, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have mitigated frequent recurrence of droughts
by developing innumerable minor and medium irrigation tanks. This has improved
the availability of water for surface as well as ground water irrigations.
there was no rainfall in upper Palar region.
Over the years, Palar’s height has increased due to indiscriminate smuggling of
sand, and its width has reduced due to encroachments
Andhra Pradesh is increasing the height of check dams, which will affect water
supply to Vellore and neighbouring districts, including Tiruvannamalai and
Tiruvallur.
deterioration of groundwater in Walajah block is mainly due to the seepage of
industrial effluent. The data base will be highly useful for analysing the key reason
for deterioration of groundwater quality, for water supply and for water supply
management
Land use: ( 2008 to 2018)
Water demand:
Contamination;
The effluents of the leather industries, usage of the chemical fertilizers for agriculture and small
scale dying industries falls heavily on the quality of the drinking water. The impact is felt very much
on the drinking water sources which are available for the people, settled on the banks of the river. In
this study, the quality of the water in open wells and the bore wells located on the bank of the Palar
River was studied by determining the physico-chemical parameters of the water during the south-
west monsoon season (June to September)
The depletion is mainly due to over-extraction and sand smuggling.
Palar river had become a dumping yard for all kinds of waste, including industrial
effluents and sewage.
The study area of the upper Palar river basin contains huge numbers of small and large industries
such as paper mills, chemical industry, textile, dyeing, oil refineries, electroplating and tanneries,
located along the bank of the river. Totally 88 large industries and 22,695 small (30MLD effluent)
industries are there. The untreated wastewaters and solid wastes are dumped into the nearby water
body which leads to severe groundwater contamination.
The central portion of the river and nearby surrounded area of Upper Palar river basin has been very
high vulnerable to groundwater contamination. This is possibly due to the area surrounded by
alluvial soil media, sand and gravel zone and gently sloped terrain towards the central portion and
nearby area which allows percolation of contaminants.
if the tannery effluents continue to be discharged at the level of the year 1999 in the same Palar
basin, both as regards the volume and TDS concentration, groundwater pollution would be
continued to increase . It was estimated that even if tannery effluents were reduced to about 25% of
the year 1999, even after 20 years, the TDS concentration in groundwater would not be reduced to
50% of the original level of the year 1992.
The stream-aquifer interaction was also found to be responsible for faster migration of
contamination
The increased use of nitrogenous fertilizers. It was revealed that the nitrate nitrogen concentration
was above WHO's recommended a limit for drinking water in 68% of the area in the pre-monsoon
and in 84% of the area in the post-monsoon periods
The tanneries located on either side of the river dispose their effluents in small streams
and finally it reaches the river.
large industries pose a serious environmental threat especially due to
soluble inorganic matter, if the industries are located at the upper reaches
of the water courses or in uplands.
organic pollution is limited to the vicinity of the source of pollution,
dissolved inorganic matter travels for a longer distance and thereby
increases the area of pollution.
Dilution along the river through ground water recharge has been the major
factor for lowering the intensity of pollution downstream. It is feared that in
the event of increase in the number of tanneries or their production,
dilution may become insignificant and concentration of dissolved solids,
salinity and hardness may rise above the excessive limits.
