COIMBATORE: Siruthuli, a public initiative for water resources conservation and afforestation, is gearing up to implement more projects to raise the ground water level in and around the city, its Managing Trustee Vanitha Mohan said here on Wednesday.

Briefing presspersons on the Green Globe Award presented to Siruthuli for its conservation and afforestation efforts, Ms. Mohan said: “We have a long way to go. We got the award for ‘Extra Ordinary Work by an NGO’. It is certainly an encouragement. At the same time, it is a reminder on the work that we have to do,” she said.

Ms. Mohan received the award from former Director of Google’s philanthropy arm Google.org Lawrence Larry Brilliant. African environmentalist and Nobel Prize winner Wangrai Muta Maathai and Chairman of Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change R.K. Pachauri were among those present at the awards function that was part of the Sustainable Development Summit held in New Delhi on February 5.

She suggested that non-Governmental organisations in South India should be more visible. Though they were doing good projects, they were not participating in major summits to the desired level.

Siruthuli planned to construct a check dam across Kanchimaanadhi at Thondamuthur, west of Coimbatore city. This would be on the lines of the check dam constructed at Nandangarai.

It would cost Rs.2 crore.

Watershed project

A watershed development project would be taken up at Rs.1.6 crore at Madhvarayapuram. This would benefit 12 villages, especially the farmers. This project would be funded by the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development.

“This is a micro-level project. Based on its impact, we will implement a macro-level project to benefit an area of 400 sq km.” Co-ordinator of Siruthuli K. Mylsami said.

Ms. Mohan said a private company in Kerala had approached Siruthuli for water hyacinth that covered most of the tanks in and around the city.

The company wanted to generate energy from hyacinth. But, there were doubts over the project’s sustainability because of efforts being taken now to eliminate the growth of the hyacinth on water bodies.

The company had been asked to demonstrate its project on a small scale. Siruthuli had given up the project for making manure out of hyacinth as the cost of transportation was very high.

Courtesy - Hindu