The drumbeat of a seven-week campaign highlighting the cause of water conservation and preservation of lakes and wetlands will feature colourful parades of decorated water pots filled with the life-sustaining resource from various parts of the region, street plays, clean-up drives and cycle rallies.
The WaterFest ‘22 which is being organised by various NGOs in alliance with the government, was launched on Wednesday.
“Interconnectedness will be the motif of the campaign...the interconnectedness of people and natural resources, surface water and groundwater and government and non-government partners”, said Prabir Banerjee, of Alliance for Good Governance, which is one of the key collaborators in the campaign along with PondyCan and Svarnim of the Sri Aurobindo Society.
“When people play a big part in the inflicting damage on the water ecosystems, whether it is by encroachments or emptying garbage on lakes and ponds, one cannot sit back and blame the government or expect solutions. The campaign will unite people, government and NGOs for a common cause”, he said.
One of the high points of the festival for the cause of protecting the waterbodies and biodiversity is the “Neer Kudam Yatra” where seven bedecked water pots filled with water from Ousteri, the largest waterbody in the region and considered as an important wetland in Asia, will be passed on in a relay by one village/ neighbourhood to the next.
Several regions
These pots will traverse through the seven regions — the municipalities of Pondicherry and Oulgaret and the five Communes of Ariyankuppam, Bahour, Mannadipet, Nettapakkam and Villianur. A little water from the Neer Kudam will be poured into the pond adopted by the community and a water sample from that pond will be poured back into pot symbolising the interconnectedness of water on earth.
“The campaign will seek to highlight how Puducherry’s dire water situation can be overcome by community-based stewardship of our natural resources, through convergence and cooperation,” said T.P. Raghunath, Svarnim Director.
According to the hosts, WaterFest’22 seeks to foster community ownership of the waterbodies, the proper maintenance of which will enhance the water holding capacity support biodiversity, act as recreational spaces and improve people’s health and well-being.
It will also build resilience to the effects of Climate Change (SDG Goal 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation).
The series of events packed into the campaign include administering of water pledge, cycle rallies, street plays, neighbourhood pond clean-up drives and training programmes for monitoring water quality.