THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The water woes of Karingal ward in Maranalloor grama panchayat will now become a thing of past. Addressing the water crisis of the place, the Kerala State Land Use Board has come out with an innovative idea.
As per the plan, the rainwater that usually drain off on the Aruvikkara-Poovanvila Road will now be stored and used to replenish the water table of the place and adjacent ones. The said initiative, which is part of the ‘Jalasamrudhi’ programme of I B Satheesh MLA, is eliciting a good response from the locals and is set to be implemented in other places of the Kattakada Assembly Constituency.
“Till yesterday, the Aruvikkara-Poovanvila Road was a waterlogged one. As the road was a short stretch, it had created many a hardship for the Public Works Department (PWD) as well as the locals. It was after this that the idea of constructing a rain pit near the side of the road was devised, “ said A Nizamudeen, commissioner, Land Use Board.
According to the commissioner, the pit that has a capacity of 6,000 litres is three-metre long, 1.5-meter wide and 1.6 meter deep.
“The initial response is positive. Also, the waterlogging problem on the Aruvikkara-Poovanvila Road has been addressed effectively. We think that a solution of this kind is worth to be reproduced in places that face similar issues,” adds Nizamudeen.
At the same time, it is learned that another programme for replenishing the groundwater table is on the anvil at Kattakada grama panchayath as the Land Use Board along with Haritha Keralam Mission and Jalasamrudhi programme has initiated a scientific study into the present status of Kaduvakuzhy-Anthiyoorkonam canal. It is said that as part of the study, a survey will be carried out in which ways to increase the water-holding capacity of the canal will be explored. The survey is being carried out by a 20-member team comprising of teaching staff and students of the civil engineering department of Trinity College of Engineering.
It was last year that the Jalasamrudhi programme was rolled out in Kattakada Assembly Constituency’s six grama panchayaths so as to solve the drinking water scarcity being faced in many of the wards. While one of the initiatives taken out under the programme was the training of 1,000 volunteers for testing the quality of water resources and construction and maintenance of water harvesting pits, another initiative was the recharge of wells of around 10 families residing at Kannancode ward in Pallichal panchayat using the water drawn from the defunct granite quarries.