Water released in the left main canal of the lower Indra Irrigation Project (lIIP) in Nuapada district has breached the embankment at one place and has damaged hundreds of acres of paddy fields in Barpadar village.
Water was released three days ago on trial basis and the first flow of the water breached the main canal embankment at a distance of 9 km from the dam outlet.
“The earthen embankment was very weak as this place. I repeatedly requested the officials to construct a concrete guard wall but they never listened,” lamented Kanhu Ch Behera, a farmer of Barpadar village, who complained that, his two acres paddy crop was completely washed away due to the gushing of canal water. “The dam authority did not listen to our complaint, when we objected to the use of black cotton soil in the embankment,” he added.
The canal authority mended the breach temporarily by putting sand bags which the people have objected and demanded that the Revenue department should conduct an inquiry of the loss, first. Behera also demanded compensation for his land acquired by the lIIP for construction of canal, which according to him was pending over a decade. “I will not allow further repair, if the compensation for one 1.10 acres of my land acquired a decade ago by the project is not paid,” he clarified.
The canal authority, however, has made the farmers responsible. They argued that, the canal embankment was not weak. “The farmers are not acquainted with the canal system, so they closed the Cross Regulator (CR) located at 13 km of the canal. Thus the water level raised and overflowed at 9 km washing out the embankment,” reasoned Executive Engineer of Canal Division – 1 Sweta Jali.
The villagers agreed that, they closed the CR but argued that, it had to be closed to divert water in the side canals, which open at 3 ft. above the ground level of main canal. “If we do not close the CR completely, the water level would not raise to the level of side canals to irrigate our lands,” they countered.
“The left bank of the canal is narrow and weak; there is every possibility of breaching at several places in future. The canal authority should take immediate attention of people’s demand,” said BJP Krushak Morcha president Sanjay Tiwari.
"There is large scale corruption in construction works of the lIIP and a thorough investigation on the quality of works should be taken up to bring out the truth," demanded the farmers.