Manickal bags second place at National Water Awards

Thiruvananthapuram: Manickal panchayat wins second place in the best panchayat category at the fourth edition of National Water Awards instituted by the Jal Shakti ministry. On behalf of the panchayat, president Kuthirakulam Jayan received the trophy, a cash prize and a citation during an event held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on Saturday. The panchayat was awarded the honour for the water conservation practices taken up by it under the ‘Puzhayozhukum Manickal’ project since 2022. This was an integrated project which brought together related schemes of different departments like Haritha Kerala Mission, central ground water board, agriculture, ministry of rural employment, and department of drinking water and sanitation and irrigation department. Under the guidance of department officials, the panchayat cleaned four ponds, took up various water conservation methods such as groundwater rejuvenation, explored ways to increase the income of farmers through sustainable agriculture methods like paddy and lotus cultivation, fish farming conducted sensitisation programmes in all wards and even made drinking water accessible to places like Thampuran Para. “This has become possible due to the intensive efforts taken up by the panchayat with the timely assistance of various department officials who directed us in the right direction. This recognition is a major motivation to proceed with our current projects to achieve a carbon-neutral status in the near future,” the panchayat president said.While Jagannadhapuram panchayat in Telangana won first place, Manickal shared the second position with Kadavur panchayat in Tamil Nadu. The first edition of the National Water Awards was introduced by the department of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation in 2018. For the fourth edition, a total of 868 applications were received by 31 October 2022. Among them, 41 applicants emerged to be winners under the 11 categories of the event.