The state of Tamil Nadu is experiencing the biggest drought in 140 years. With the onset of summer and the sun firing up every day, conditions are only getting worse.

With water becoming increasingly a scarce commodity, the government is trying everything in their hands to tackle the dreaded situation. However, one such desperate attempt by a minister invited more questions than answers.

According to Tamil Nadu Co-operative Minister Sellur K Raju, one way to do it is by making sure that the water doesn’t get evaporated! So Mr. Raju got this brilliant idea and decided to put that into practice.

Yes, Tamil Nadu’s Co-operative minister decided to set afloat ₹10 lakh worth of thermocol sheets on the Vaigai dam reservoir in Madurai to prevent the water from evaporating.

Yes, he really did that!

Only after reaching there he disclosed his plan – to cover the entire dam surface with thermocol sheets to prevent the water from evaporating.

In the minister’s defense, this method is actually a tried and tested in foreign countries and private water bodies to stop water from evaporating.

But the minister’s plan fell flat. As it only works in small farm ponds and definitely not in a huge water reservoir of a dam.

With the high-velocity wind in the dam, the thermocol sheets attached with ordinary sticky tape quickly disintegrated and floated to every corner of the waterbody before washing up ashore.

This happened even before the people who were tasked to deploy the sheets on the surface came back!

The minister, along with several others, pushed the sheets by getting into the knee-deep water. However, instead of floating on the surface, the sheets got scattered and torn. Many even landed back on the shore.

The minister’s Rs 10 lakhs project instead of saving water, has ended up polluting the water body. He now says it was done on an experimental basis. 

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