A team of Central Government officials and technical experts visited Salem on Monday to study water scarcity and to prepare water conservation plan under the Jal Shakti Abyan programme for the district.
A 14-member team led by V. Thirupugazh, Joint Secretary, Policy and Plan, National Disaster Management Agency and Nodal officer for Salem district, would be visiting the 34 firkas here and suggest water conservation plans for the district.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Thirupugazh said the team includes officials and technical experts who would conduct field visits to firkas over the next few days and study the water conservation projects already in practice here. The team would look for water conservation, water augmentation and water management measures here. He said that a water conservation plan would be prepared for the district and it would integrated with the district irrigation plan.
Mr. Thirupugazh said that the outcome of the programme could be known only in November, after the seasonal rain. The team later visited the rainwater harvesting structures set up at Sarada College.
In Namakkal, a 13-member team led by P.N.Ranjith, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Ayush held discussions with officials from various departments and studied water conservation and rainwater harvesting structures set up in the district.
Krishnagiri
In Krishnagiri, District Collector S. Prabhakar said that a team would work towards improving rainwater harvesting and there by recharging groundwater table here. Mr. Prabhakar said that the team would study the impact of works done after October.
The Collector said that the team would look into water conservation, restoration of traditional water tanks, recharge of bore wells, watershed management and afforestation.