During the months of June and July 2003, Siruthuli as a people’s movement did a herculean task of de-silting Krishnampathy and Selvampanty tanks. While desilting, Siruthuli removed almost 70 million cubic feet of soil from 170 acres of land from these two specific tanks. Also, Siruthuli de-silted some of the channels and pathways that were blocked by the growth of wild bushes and/or encroachments during the past years. Having done all these ground work, when the south-west monsoon was set during the month of July 2003 and the downpour occured at the catchments, Siruthuli was eagerly waiting to welcome the fresh waters getting into these tanks which will eventually recharge the ground water all around the tanks it has meticulously de-silted.
On this background, what we really had was surprises. Water didn’t turn up at all. Later, on deeper probes, we came to know that almost all the water was diverted and divided among the farmers on the upstream itself. Since 2002 and 2003 were real crisis period due to poor downpours during the monsoon times, we were requesting upstream farmers to adopt different kind of water sharing method by which the people down stream also get water. People at the upstream were little adamant on consuming everything first and they wanted to leave only the surplus to others. As an NGO, Siruthuli voluntarily involved itself for a reasonable negotiation on water sharing. Siruthuli’s Managing Trustee Mrs. Vanitha Mohan along with a few apex members were interacted with the farmers of this region and succeeded in bringing out an amicable solution on bringing water into these two tanks through Chithiraichavadi channel. Indeed, it was a moment of joy for all the Siruthulians to see water entering into the Narasampathy tank for the first time after de-silting.
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