When one revival leads to another


Mookan and other farmers of the Veppankulam village in Nanguneri block of Tirunelveli district, Tamil Nadu, have a reason to smile. Come winter rains, the farmers in this area will have ample water to irrigate their parched fields. That’s because the de-silting of a waterbody, their only source of irrigation, has now been completed.

By digging out the silt and using the same mud to raise the height of the bund surrounding it, it will now be possible to store 3.04 million cubic feet of water. A channel too has been widened for the flow of water to irrigate fields on the other side of the dam.

No attempt had been made to de-silt this irrigation facility for the past 25 years, hence enough water could not be stored during the rainy season. As a result, the fields had been virtually rendered barren and this was disastrous for the villagers of the area.

Hand-holding the project

The farmers approached the Srinivasan Services Trust (SST), which has been involved in the revival of over 100 minor irrigation tanks and lakes in the drought-hit areas of Tamil Nadu.

SST, the social arm of TVS Motors, started the project by first helping the farmers form self-help groups. They familiarised the villagers with the concept of de-silting, guided them on how to get financial assistance from the banks, approval from the government and technical support for de-silting.....Read more

Source web page: Business line


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