Intense summer has triggered an acute drinking water shortage for people of Manapparai,Vaiyampatti, and neighbouring villages in Tiruchi district.

Manapparai is a rain shadow region in the district. While farmers largely depend on seasonal rainfall for the crops, they depend upon the Cauvery water for drinking, which is supplied under various combined water schemes. The region generally faces water crisis in summer.

Several villages of Manapparai, Vaiyampatti, and Marungapuri blocks witnessed drinking water shortage in summer. The problem began to surface in February and intensified since after the onset of summer. Normally, the problem would ease a bit with the end of summer. But the continued spell of summer-like weather has worsened the water scarcity.

According to sources, drinking water scarcity was reported in at least 40 to 50 villages in Manapparai region. In Manapparai, the residents now get drinking water once in three or four days. The residents of several villages around Manapparai complain of erratic supply. They are supplied with water once a week. Since the supply was erratic, they depend on borewells and open wells for their daily needs. This too has become difficult as the groundwater level has been sinking drastically due to the drought.

Villages such as Aniyapur, Sandhaipettai, Kuppanampatti, Kattayampatti, Veeramalaipalayam, Nallampillai, Udayarpatti, Balakulathupatti, and Veerappur were under the grip of acute shortage of drinking water.

“We get Cauvery water once a week. It is supplied only for a few minutes. No one gets more than two pots of water. It is not sufficient even for a day’s use. Moreover, the supply is erratic and we do not know when water is supplied,” says Nagaraj, a resident of Veerappur near Aniyapur.

A senior official told The Hindu that water yield at the source points of combined water schemes had come down because of the failure of monsoon. The situation had to be largely maintained by tapping the local water resources. The officials of the District Rural Development Agency had been given instruction to focus on drinking water supply. Intervention activities such as sinking additional borewells and augmenting water sources in villages had been undertaken where the issues had cropped up. Water supply would be the priority of officials until the onset of northeast monsoon. 

Published - August 20, 2026 08:56 pm IST