more-in Various local bodies in Kozhikode district are making efforts to set up ground water recharging facilities attached to open wells to combat water scarcity. A special fund of the district panchayat and funds from local panchayats will be mobilised to achieve the target ahead of the monsoon season. Unlike before, construction of rainwater harvesting tanks and conventional style of water conservation will not be given prominence this time. Poor maintenance Incidentally, the district panchayat and other local bodies changed their stance as many such tanks had failed to serve their purpose owing to poor maintenance. Kozhikode block panchayat president N. Manoj Kumar says the panchayat has an exclusive scheme named Haritha Bhavanam (green house) to promote water conservation initiatives and well water recharging work. No fewer than any 100 wells are on the approved list to be covered under the scheme, he adds. Most grama panchayats depend on the labour force of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) to complete the work. Subsidies They also promise subsidies up to ?8,000 for those who support the implementation of the scheme under the technical guidance of the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM). According to the district panchayat authorities, another exclusive scheme, Akasa Ganga, is also being implemented in various grama panchayats to support the well recharging initiative. The scheme aims to cover around 50,000 wells in as many as 70 panchayats in the district by the end of the current fiscal. Rainwater collected from rooftops will be let into the wells after proper filtering. The installation of a single unit costs around ?8,000, but the beneficiaries can claim government subsidy, they say. Groundwater levels Grama panchayats where considerable decline in groundwater levels has been noticed have also come up with projects to address the crisis. Responding pro-actively to the concern of local residents, the Panangad grama panchayat is planning to set up recharging facilities for as many as 232 wells. The panchayat authorities say that they will invest ?20 lakh on the project. Interestingly, well water recharging initiatives taken up by the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) last year were a thumping success with a coverage of around 7,000 wells. Jala Subhiksha, a special project implemented with the support of MNREGS workers, covered up to 13 grama panchayats in Kozhikode district where water scarcity has been found rampant. The DRDA has identified around 20,000 wells in the district to be covered in different phases.

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