Thermocol to prevent water loss at Vaigai dam: TN PWD ministry's epic fail

Officials of the public works department in Tamil Nadu wanted to do something ingenious but ended up embarrassing themselves and State cooperatives minister Sellur K Raju. The department thought it was an ingenious idea to use thermocol to prevent water in the Vaigai dam from evoporating but failed miserably.

The officials floated thermocol sheets hoping they would cover the water's surface and stop evaporation thus saving water. What they did not expect was that the thermocol sheets, stuck together haphazard with tapes, would wash up ashore within hours. The 'ingenious scheme' was launched by minister Sellur K Raju on Friday at the Vaigai dam. He told reporters that it was only a 'pilot project to study the efficacy of the method'.

"The region is experiencing one of the worst droughts in 142 years and every attempt is being made to conserve water. The method of using thermocol sheets to reduce evaporation has been tried in foreign countries. Rs 10 lakh has been set aside for the project," Sellur K Raju said.

On Saturday, the high-velocity wind in the dam caused the thermocol sheets to disintegrate and float to the corner of the water body. Despite the epic fail, collector of the Madurai K Veera Raghava Rao said that the scheme was carried out on an experimental basis. "Only after experimenting will we know if these methods could indeed prevent evaporation loss. All factors like wind velocity, the size of sheets and their ability to arrest evaporation will be studied in the project," he said.

OneIndia News