KASARAGOD: As part of Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA), the district administration is planning to rehabilitate water sources by reviving Surangas or tunnel wells to raise the groundwater level in Kasaragod.
By incorporating Suranga restoration into the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the district administration seeks to promote water conservation, improve livelihoods, and foster women’s leadership in community development through the “Nari Shakthi Se Jal Shakthi” campaign.
District Collector Inbasekar K said, “Our primary objective is to turn the status of Kasaragod block panchayat from critical groundwater category to semi-critical and later to safe groundwater category. At present, four blocks are in the safe category, except Manjeshwar and Kasaragod. Surangas are the traditional water source, and reviving them will help increase the groundwater level.”
Surangas were traditionally used by farmers, as many of the tunnels provided water during the summer. A Suranga is essentially a tunnel carved into a laterite hill that allows water to seep through and collect at the other end. Kasaragod is one of the districts in the state that faces acute water shortage in the summer.
A groundwater department officer said, “We will collect the number of surangas in Kasaragod with the help of Kudumbashree and renovate them through MGNREGS. We are planning to execute the project as part of JSA. In the initial phase, we plan to conduct a survey to determine the number of Surangas in the district. Kasaragod is divided into six blocks, of which Kasaragod block is considered a critical block as the majority of the recharged water is used and Manjeshwar block is considered a semi-critical block.”
The 2023 Central Groundwater Department report shows a decline in the district’s groundwater development from 79.64% in 2017 and 76.40% in 2020 to the current level of 72.75%, which is classified as semi-critical. When assessing groundwater development, the Kasaragod block is in the critical category (92.99%), and the Manjeshwar block falls in the semi-critical range (80.96%). All other block panchayats in the district are classified as safe.