Mission to recharge groundwater

Trained teams to start campaign under district panchayat’s Jalam Sulabham scheme on July 20

recharging of water

‘Rain Army’ teams of trained Kudumbasree members will be in the field later this month with an ambitious plan to make and install groundwater recharging facilities attached to wells in all households in the district as part of a water conservation programme aimed at averting drought situation in the future.

The Rain Army has been mobilised from Kudumbasree units in panchayats in the district. In the first phase of the mission, 325 selected Kudumbasree members have been trained. Each panchayat will have a five-member Rain Army team to lead the work, including digging rainwater pits and installing the unit in households in their respective panchayats. By July 20, the trained teams will start their campaign, linked to the district panchayat’s Jalam Sulabham scheme during the monsoon season to recharge depleting groundwater levels in the district.

Target

“Our target in the first phase is to cover 50 wells in each local body ward,” said district Kudumbasree Mission coordinator M. Surjith. The project will not only provide the trained Kudumbasree members a source of revenue but will also reduce the shortage of trained groundwater recharge workers in the district, he said.

Meanwhile, the Kudumbasree Mission is seeking to converge its water conservation programme with the works planned under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). In the current financial year, water conservation activities, including well recharging, renovation of waterbodies, pond construction, well construction and construction of drainage in waterlogged areas are being carried out.

“The convergence of the Kudumbasree’s Rain Army scheme and the MGNREGS’ water conservation works is the area of information, education and communication,” said Poverty Alleviation Unit project director and joint programme coordinator M.K. Ramakrishnan. He said the trained Kudumbasree members will be involved in offering technical guidance and assistance to the MGNREGS beneficiaries. Under the MGNREGS programme being implemented through the local bodies, each beneficiary household will be paid ₹8,000 for well recharge works, he added.

Kudumbasree Mission officials said that joint meetings of MGNREGS beneficiaries and Rain Army teams will be held in all block panchayat by July 15 to plan the convergence and prepare estimates.