The Uliyampalayam Tank in Coimbatore after it was cleaned. more-in The water in Uliyampalayam tank reflects the sky orange as the rain water that carried earth is yet to settle down. On the bund, three boys are sitting beneath a banyan tree and throwing stones to enjoy the ripples they create. This is the first time that the boys are playing by throwing stones in to the tank as it had never in the recent past stored so much water, says K. Gopal, who lives right next to the tank bund. “The tank was full with water at least 10 years ago.” He has been living there for 30 years milking cows for a living. The boys say that a week ago, the villagers and others from outside gathered at the tank with machines for work. They deepened the tank by at least 6ft, says S. Boopathy, a resident. He was a member the team that cleaned the tank as part of BJP State general secretary Vanathi Srinivasan’s water conservation rally, ‘Thamaraiyin Thagam Theerkum Yathirai’. More than 100 people along with three earth movers and two tractors worked from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. to clean and deepen the more-than-an-acre tank. Ms. Srinivasan says that the agenda for the rally was not just to go around the district shouting slogans or distributing handbills but also do something substantial so that people are benefited. The rally participants therefore decided to clean the Uliyampalayam tank. After cleaning the tank, the participants also planted saplings on the bund. Four days after the cleaning, the tank received water starting Tuesday after heavy rain hit the area. “So much was the rain that day, the water reached his door step,” Mr. Gopal recalls. One of the reasons for the good inflow into tank is that on the day of cleaning, the volunteers did not stop with just the tank, they also cleaned the inlet channel for about 500 ft, says P. Deepan Chakravarthy, another resident. The agenda before the team that cleaned the tank is to conserve the water and keep it as clean as possible.

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