STOP WAGING WATER WARS

SOLUTIONS TO THE WATER WARS  

‘Neerindri amaiyadhu ulagu’.  THERE CAN'T BE A WORLD WITHOUT WATER.

Even during the recent rains hundreds of jungle rivers across the state and the canals that carry waters from Mettur were in spate and the entire waters reached the Bay of Bengal. Our friends were busy watching television programmes and none in TN went out to devise a plan to stop and save the surplus waters for their sanding crops. This is repeated every year.

Gone are the days when  villagers did ‘maramathu’ (maintenance) of their tanks, lakes, canals, temples on their own. Today to remove weeds from their little pond, they write to the state PWD minister and to prune a branch of a tree that disturbs the traffic,  they write to the state Electricity minister.

For anything small or big they expect an answer from the local elected representatives and they are willing to do anything but for questioning. Democracy at its peak! At this juncture the only way to bring waters to our state is to strengthen the existing tanks and lakes and forming thousands of water conserving bodies for our future.

Few ideas to save the earth

1.     Allow not even a little pond (kuttai) to die.

2.     Apart from raising the lake beds go for deepening, widening them every year.

3.     Link all our jungle rivers to the lakes and let all our lakes become little small dams

4.     Go for forming new water bodies throughout the state

5.    Form water bodies even in the areas where there is no requirement of water.

6.     Encourage farmers to go for less water intensive crops

7.     Plan for check dams, mini dams and large dams at feasible areas  

8.     The children and the general public who plant and maintain plants may be given titles/certificates by the govt. For instance:

No.of plants /trees planted and nurtured	Titles
10 and more	Friend of the Earth (mannin nanban)
50 and more	The guard of the Earth (boomi kavalan)
100 and more	The son of the earth (mannin maindhan)

When water is there around us the farmers won’t draw more power and the power distribution would become easily manageable.

SEE A JUNGLE RIVER (AMBULI AARU) IN FULL FLOW IN TANJORE DIST. ON THE FOURTH DAY AFTER RAINS