VELLORE: Over the past several days, these columns have been carrying reports on the sorry state of rivers in Tamil Nadu and how it impacted the lives millions of people. But, the story of Naganathi is a shining example of how concerted human effort can resurrect a dead river and its ecosystem.
Naganathi originates in Amirthi near Jawadhu Hills in Vellore and flows 30 km through the district before its confluence with Kamandalanathi at Sambuvarayanallur in Tiruvannamalai. By the turn of the century, the river started drying up and villages and towns along its banks started facing acute water shortage, making them dependent on bore-wells. “The groundwater table lay so low that even a 500-foot bore-well didn’t fetch water,” said a resident of a village in Kaniyambadi block.
ALSO READ | Will Vaippar river’s glory days return?
In 2014, Art of Living Foundation, an NGO, launched a ‘Naganathi River Rejuvenation Project’ to improve groundwater table, and revive the river. Conservation of rainwater began and recharge wells, known as urai kinaru, were sunk. “Five wells were sunk at Salamanatham in Vellore in 2014 on pilot basis. An impact study two months later revealed that groundwater table and water level in farm wells rose to a 10-year high,” Chandrasekaran Kuppan, director of the project and an Art of living teacher, told TNIE.
“We submitted a report to the then district collector, requesting the implementation of the project, he added. In 2014-15, the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) started implementing the project under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme.
Women power
Under the MGNREGA an army of women workers was raised to sink the wells on the riverbed. The wells, 20-foot deep and six-foot wide, had been designed to collect water from rivulets formed during the rains, thereby raising the water table, said the project director, adding that 354 recharge wells were built in 24 panchayats in the Kaniyambadi.
“The project offered work to hundreds of women in the villages. They worked throughout the day and helped rejuvenate the river,” said Vidhya Baskaran, the then field supervisor, MNREGA, Kaniyambadi block. “Before the wells, villages in the Kaniyambadi block didn’t have enough water. Within two years of sinking the wells, however, our area flourished and water table rose,” said a villager.
In a few years, rivulets started flowing on the once bone-dry rivebed. According to sources, the river now flows throughout the monsoon and a few months afterwards. Green cover along its banks has also increased.
ALSO READ | Greed, apathy dig grave for fabled Vaigai river
The same river-rejuvenation model is being implemented in the State’s nine other districts – Ranipet, Tirupathur, Tiruvallur, Sivaganga, Dindugal, Krishnagiri, Tiruppur, Coimbatore, and Salem – by engaging over 42,000 workers, largely women. So far, 5500 wells have been sunk under the project, said Chandrasekaran.
“In Vellore and Tiruvannamalai, this model is being implemented in the Palar tributaries of Saraswathi Nathi, Malattaru, Koundinya Mahanathi, Agaram, and Ponnai River. Similar work is underway in Thenpennai tributaries,” he said. In this series, TNIE looks at the problems plaguing the rivers flowing through TN.
PM lauds workers
The story of the revival of Naganathi and the women workers who pulled off the Herculean task were one of the topics that Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about during his radio programme Mann Ki Baat on Sunday. He praised the women workers and lauded the water conservation efforts