With Tamil Nadu reeling under severe drought, the state government is going out of the way to preserve water. However, an experiment that was intended to prevent water loss through evaporation went awry leaving the officials red-faced. In an attempt to prevent water from getting evaporated from Vaigai dam near Madurai, Minister for Cooperation ‘Sellur’ K. Raju invited media to witness the breakthrough technique that involved floating thermocol sheets on the water surface.
PWD workers set out in boats and floated over 50 metres away from bank to dump tens of long thermocol sheets on the water. However, it took barely 15 minutes for them to realise that it’s not going to work. All the sheets were washed ashore due to heavy winds. Some men even got into waist-deep water and placed the sheets, only to see the strong winds tear and blow the sheets away.
The initial plan was to cover the entire water surface with sheets of thermocol taped together. The minister flamboyantly picked up a few sheets and tried to place them over water. Unfortunately, he did not expect the strong wind to tear his water-shield to shreds, reported New Indian Express.
Speaking to media, the minister said, “It was only a pilot project to study the efficacy of the method”
Claiming that this method has been used in other countries as well for preserving water, he said that Rs 10 lakh has been set aside for the project.
Madurai collector K Veera Raghava Rao also defended the initiative and said it has been carried out on experimental basis. “Only after experimenting we will know if these methods could indeed prevent evaporation loss,” he told reporters.
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