Urban News

The Hindu 19.08.2009

Over 3,000 rural habitations face drinking water shortage

T. Ramakrishnan

— File photo

EMPTY POTS: Vellore, one of the districts facing acute drinking water shortage, has been allocated Rs.5 crore by the State government to tide over the problem.

CHENNAI: About 3,300 rural habitations in the State require relief measures for drinking water supply in the wake of the failure of the south-west monsoon.

This accounts for about 3.6 per cent of the State’s total number of rural habitations (92,689) and the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) Board, responsible for water supply in most parts of the State, has sought nearly Rs.70 crore for undertaking the measures.

[Chennai Metrowater takes care of the supply in the city and parts of neighbouring local bodies].

The relief works will be taken up in areas where the service level has declined below 10 litres per capita per day (LPCD) or is expected to go down in the coming months. The ultimate purpose will be to ensure a minimum supply of 10 LPCD in rural areas, according to a TWAD Board official here.

[Under the normal circumstances, the government norms stipulate that rural habitations have the service level of 40 LPCD; town panchayats – 70 LPCD; municipalities – 90 LPCD and municipal corporations – 135 LPCD.]

Digging of new borewells/infiltration/open wells, deepening or desilting of existing wells and replacement of pumpsets are among the measures proposed by the TWAD Board.

One hundred and sixty out of 561 town panchayats and 52 out of 148 municipalities require mitigation measures. The TWAD Board has proposed to carry out the works at a cost of Rs.14.14 crore for town panchayats and Rs.13.5 crore for municipalities. While the relief works are to be undertaken in urban areas where the service level has declined or is likely to go below 30 LPCD in near future, authorities are particular that a minimum of 30 LPCD should be maintained in these areas.

The TWAD Board is maintaining 474 combined water supply schemes (CWSS) covering five municipal corporations, 51 municipalities, 256 town panchayats, 21,023 rural habitations and 420 industrial units/institutions. Of these schemes, 48 require to be rejuvenated, for which the Board has sought about Rs.3.17 crore.

In total, the organisation has prepared a contingency plan for about Rs.100 crore. The proposal is under the government examination.

Besides, the Board has planned to take up revamping of 250 CWSS at an estimated cost of about Rs.43 crore under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme.

Relief fund

The State government has already released about Rs.21.75 crore to different districts for tiding over water shortage.

While Vellore has been given Rs.5 crore, Virudhunagar and Dindigul have been allotted Rs.4 crore each. Tiruvannamalai has been sanctioned Rs.3.75 crore and Villupuram and Tiruvallur, Rs.2 crore each. Four districts – Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Ramanathapuram and Tuticorin – have been given Rs.25 lakh each, according to a senior Revenue Department official.

The Hindu 18.08.2009

A journey in search of ‘Water Stories’

D. Karthikeyan

MADURAI: A Canadian journalist and a photographer, working on their project, ‘Water Stories,’ are on a tour of Madurai and other places in the State.

Documenting the lives of the poor and marginalised sections across the third world and sub-Saharan countries, Melanie Jones, Calgary-based journalist, and Cate Cameron, photographer from Vancouver, are part of a project initiative of the Canadian International Development Agency.

Supported by the Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology, the Canadian organisation provides education, training and technical consultation on water and sanitation to organisations working with the poor in developing countries.

They visited select urban, suburban and rural areas in the State to document the impact of safe drinking water, accessibility to drinking water and other common property resources.

Exhibition

The project is an effort to sensitise the people of Canada through visual elements and articles, which will be curated at an art exhibition that will be organised in major cities of Canada.

Asked about the reason for conducting the exhibition, they said it was not only an effort to sensitise the public but also to extend the impact through networks that were working on developmental issues in the third world. They would soon be holding exhibitions in India and African countries.

They started with a visit to Zambia, where they had the opportunity to witness poverty in absolute terms and also saw how AIDS was wreaking havoc in people’s lives. They would be moving to Haiti from India.

Shades of empowerment

Comparing the conditions in Zambia and India, Ms. Cameron said it was no comparison given the amount of poverty there. “Development is more like a sort of charity there.” However, in India, the basic idea of development had greater shades of empowerment attached to it, she added.

Ms. Jones, sharing her observations on a visit to Sellur in Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Nagapattinam and Karaikudi, said that people who lived near the Pandalkudi channel in Sellur lived in absolute fear of health hazards.

In Periyakaigan village in Mudukulathur taluk in Ramanathapuram district, the accessibility factor was a vital issue, as the villagers had to walk more than three km to fetch water. Following the intervention of the DHAN Foundation, in nearby villages such as Savariarpattinam resuscitation of ‘ooranies’ and other waterbodies had taken place at a rapid pace, which benefited the villages in many ways.