Coimbtore Village becomes model in water management
A few years ago, the villagers of Palankarai in Coimbatore district had to travel nearly one kilometre to fetch a few pots of water. Today, thanks to community participation, the village is on the threshold of a transformation.Now every household has taps to supply water for bathing and washing purposes. One tap to cater to the requirement of drinking water for about 25 households.Two visiting water activists, Santiago Arconada of Venezuela and Olivier Hoedemann of the Netherlands, were so impressed by the community participation in water conservation and distribution in Palankarai that they suggested that this model could be emulated by other water starved villages in the country. They cited a similar success story in Ramayanahalli in Dharmapuri district.The Executive Engineer, Rural Water Supply Scheme of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board, G Viswanathan, told this website's newspaper that Palankarai in Avinashi panchayat union was one of the five village panchayats in the district selected a couple of years ago for the pilot drinking water project executed with community participation.Palankarai has 17 hamlets. Under the Rs 48-lakh project implemented with 10 percent contribution from the people, Over Head Tanks (OHTs) were constructed and water was pumped from borewell sources and distributed to the households.Each household had paid an amount of Rs 1,000 for house connections and had spent an equal amount for laying pipelines.
Now, they pay around Rs 40 a month towards electricity and maintenance.The people, in the once water starved village, use water judiciously and learned to conserve water. Now the village is turning green with people planting around 6,000 saplings to improve ground water.The vice-president of the village, PN Nanjappan, said that a few saplings are entrusted to each household and the fact that the saplings carry the names of the house owners would motivate them to take care of the saplings.
