Around 800 students from 12 colleges observed ‘World Water Day’ on Saturday with a door-to-door campaign on judicious use of water.
The initiative was spearheaded by the newly formed Madurai Water Forum, a collective of students, activists, academicians, and retired engineers of the Public Works Department (PWD). “Since people are well aware of the depleting water table and water scarcity that is sure to affect us this summer, we decided to stress the ways to conserve water at the domestic level,” said N.T. Prasanth Kumar, a forum member.
Groups of student volunteers visited residential areas near their colleges and pasted stickers detailing effective methods of water conservation in houses. The ‘Slow the Flow’ stickers outlined simple steps by which people can conserve 3 to 30 litres of water during day-to-day activities. “In many of the houses we visited at Nagamalai Pudukottai, the residents said that there was no need for conservation methods since there was no water at all,” said K. Sundar, a student of S. Vellaichamy Nadar College. “This gave us an insight into the depth of the problem of water scarcity and the need for effective management of water as preventive measures,” he added.
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The other colleges involved in the campaign included The American College, Fatima Michael College of Engineering and Technology and Agricultural College and Research Institute. Some of the forum members conducted an interactive session on the importance of water conservation with children at Jeevana School.