Less water, more trees

A group of youth have adopted a novel method of using discarded plastic bottles for watering plants at Vazhappadi town and its surrounding areas.

Besides using the available water in a judicious way during summer, the initiative of the youth has led to the removal of plastic bottles, which affected the environment in a big way, from public places.

The volunteers of Vaazhappadi Pasumai Iyakkam, Nest Trust and Apple Youths Movement, and other organisations with the assistance of government departments and private concerns have evinced interest in raising trees.

These youths have fenced the plants to protect them from animals and water them regularly.

They go round the Vazhappadi town, and its surrounding areas and collect discarded plastic bottles.

They remove the bottom part of the bottle and make a small hole on the cork. Later, the bottle is tied to the plant upside down. When the bottles are filled with water, the roots of the plants get water by way of drips through the whole in the cork, on the lines of drip irrigation.

This provides water to the roots for a longer time without any wastage.

They said that this method keeps the roots wet for the whole day even during summer.