THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The integrated watershed management programme being implemented in the Kattakada Assembly constituency achieved a rare feat as it was mentioned at the fourth edition of the World Reconstruction Conference in Geneva.
It was Pieter-Paul van Meel of Integrated Water Resources Management who referred to the said model during his speech. According to him, the best example of integrated watershed management in the world is being practised in Kattakada and is worth to be emulated across the world.
“All stakeholders - from school children to elderly people - are involved in this. If it could be replicated in the other watersheds in the state, 80 per cent of the Integrated River Basin Management goals would be achieved. This would increase flood and drought resilience,” said van Meel in his address.
Nizamudeen, commissioner, Kerala Land Use Board, said the speaker was part of a team who had arrived in the state for preparing the Post-Disaster Needs Assessments Report after the floods. and it was then that he came across the water management plan being undertaken at Kattakada.