As the Meenchail-Meenanthara and Kodoor River Re-linking programme celebrates its third anniversary, the government-people collective for restoration of water bodies has brought in more laurels to Kottayam.
Kottayam has won the Elets Technomedia’s Water Innovation National Award, instituted by the Elets Technomedia in association with the Ministry of Jal Shakti, in recognition of the activities implemented under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in connection with the river re-linking works.
Receiving the award, District Collector M. Anjana attributed the success of the project to the joint efforts of the district administration, various government departments and the people. U. P. Singh, secretary at the Union Water Resources Department, presided over the event.
The Collector later dedicated the award to the river re-linking programme committee in a video conference held as part of the third anniversary of the initiative.
Earlier in 2019, Kottayam district had been selected as an outstanding performer in the implementation of the MNREGS programme for the construction of structures augmenting water harvesting as part of the river re-linking programme.
Launched as a pilot initiative in four panchayats and one municipality, the project has succeeded in restoring canals that together run about 1,500 kms across 34 panchayats and four municipalities.
Besides clearing and de-silting a huge web of water bodies, the project also envisaged protection of these canal banks by laying coir geo-textiles.
The project takes its origin from a series of workshops held in October 2017. In the following five months, it spent about a record 26 lakh labour days to restore the water bodies from stagnation and fragmentation.
