Veeranam tank – A Chola’s water management plan in 10th Century is worth more than 200 million US$ in 2014

April 10, 2014 Traditional Knowledge Comments Off on Veeranam tank – A Chola’s water management plan in 10th Century is worth more than 200 million US$ in 2014

Veeranam tank/lake, was built by the famous Chola king Rajadityan son of Paranthaka Cholan during 10th century AD, is one of the classical example of Chola’s water management plan. This lake stores the excess water from the tributaries of Cauvery River flowing into Bay of Bengal and supports the region for agriculture activities. This lake protects against the flood by storing the excess water. The lake area is approximately 23 sq.km and has a capacity to store about 1,465 million cft of water. More than 20,000 acres of agriculture lands are getting irrigated from Veeranam lake. It is astonishing, how in ancient days, they had designed such a nice water management structure, which still works great.

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(Google Map Showing Veeranam tank and adjacent areas)

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(A view of Veeranam Tank from Kandakumaran Village, Kattumannarkoil Taluk, Tamil Nadu)

A Government Order of Tami Nadu 2011 indicates, for deepening Porur tank 1m to 2m, to increase the capacity from 46 to 70 mcft, estimated cost was around Rs. 20 crore. Think about the cost of constructing a new Veeranam tank, which has 1465 mcft capacity. Rs. 20 Crore was estimated in 2011 for increasing the structure capacity of 24mcft. For 1465 mcft, we might need to spend Rs. 1126 crores which is approximately 191 million US$ based on 2011 estimates. May be approximately 200 million US$ in 2014. This is just a construction cost after the land got procured. If we estimate the benefits of agriculture in the region, drinking water supply to Chennai city, several millions of dollars has to be added.

“People and the government should not think that they got this infrastructure for free. They have to remember that the value is 200 million US$ and every year they should spend atleast 1million US$ (0.5%) to maintain this precious Veeranam tank to store enough water, so that the ground water recharge will also be significantly improved in the region”

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Though my birth place is Kattumannarkoil and have seen this great lake hundreds of times, I have never realized it’s importance in the past. This lake is referred as Veera Narayana lake in the famous tamil novel called “Ponniyin Selvan”

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