The Advisor to Government of India's Department of Science and Technology, GJ Samathanam, has praised Tamil Nadu for giving a good rainwater harvesting model to rest of the country.
“Today, other States are emulating it. Tamil Nadu was the first State to create a Rain Water Harvesting model by creating provisions for it at all levels. Approvals for house construction and town planning were based on whether provision was made for rain water harvesting,” he said on Tuesday.
Dr. Samathanam's words of appreciation to Tamil Nadu and to the Government that introduced it came at the inaugural function of an international groundwater conference organised by the Yadava College in the city where delegates from national/international level organisations are participating.
He asked the conference delegates to come out with achievable recommendations for groundwater conservation and management of water resources in India.
The Vice-Chancellor of Gandhigram Rural Institute, SM.Ramasamy, has expressed concern that India's diverse geological system with huge rivers and water bodies had now become complex and threatening.
“It was said that Tamil Nadu had 43,000 water bodies in the past. But that number was feared to have come down and it is time for having groundwater modelling to prevent the coming down of water level. It is also time to study the impact of sand mining on water sources,” Dr. Ramasamy observed.
Experts from the Central Ground Water Board in New Delhi and the National Groundwater Research Institute, Hyderabad, were among those who are participating in the meet.
Efforts
The efforts taken by the Yadava College in Madurai in bringing groundwater experts to deliberate on a timely topic were also lauded by the DST Advisor and scientists from national research bodies.