A small pond in Ward 6 of Thanjavur Corporation was cleaned by civic employees under a ‘rejuvenation of rainwater harvesting structures’ programme held on Saturday.
The civic body took up the campaign recently to create awareness among the public of the importance and need for rainwater harvesting and judicious use of water.
As part of the campaign, civic officials decided to clean ‘Nagai Kuttai’ located on Thanjavur-Nagapattinam Road near Cholan Nagar to drive home the point that concerted efforts helped replenish groundwater potential.
Around 50 staff, including officials led by Commissioner Janaki Ravindran, assembled at the pond at 6 a.m. and began cleaning it. The rejuvenation of the water body — with a capacity to hold 196 cubic metres of water — was completed about 1 p.m. The walls of the tank and steps were whitewashed, and a bill board carrying a warning that littering the water body would attract penal action was installed on the bund.
Meanwhile, residents of Thirukanurpatti near here staged a road roko demonstration displaying empty pots, demanding regular drinking water supply to their hamlet, on Saturday.
Daily supply of drinking water was suspended three months ago. An overhead tank was filled with water brought from far off places in lorries and supplied once a week. On other days, they were forced to depend on private water suppliers selling a pot of water for ₹12 to ₹15, the residents alleged.
The villagers withdrew their demonstration after they were assured by officials that their grievance would be addressed immediately.