CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu State Wetland Authority will tap into the traditional knowledge of community leaders and enlist the support of non-governmental organisations (NGO) to identify and restore disappeared and degraded waterbodies and wetlands in peri-urban and rural areas in the State.
The authority would appoint a State-level coordinator to liaison with NGOs and community leaders for the initiative, said Deepak Srivastava, Member-Secretary, Tamil Nadu State Wetland Authority.
“NGOs and community leaders are requesting to restore disappeared waterbodies. Based on the request, the initiative has been taken up. Community leaders in rural areas might have traditional knowledge about waterbodies in their villages. Utilising their knowledge, waterbodies will be identified,” he added.
He said that some of the identified waterbodies would be restored with community help and corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds. “If we restore 25 to 30 disappeared waterbodies in two or three years, it will become an example for restoring other waterbodies,” he opined.
Restoring disappeared waterbodies would recharge groundwater and provide drinking water to local communities, besides boosting water-based biodiversity. Apart from communities and NGOs, the authority would also try to rope in institutions and experts for guidance.
According to the expression of interest (EOI) floated by the authority to appoint State-level coordinator, disappeared waterbodies having an extent of less than 2.25 hectares and belonging to village panchayats would be selected for restoration. Similarly, wetlands that are larger in size but not more than five hectares would also be selected under the initiative.
The wetland authority has launched Tamil Nadu Wetland Mission to restore 100 wetlands across the State. But officials said the disappeared or degraded waterbodies that would be covered under the new initiative would not overlap with the wetland mission projects. The mission is being implemented under the government fund, while the new initiative would be implemented with community participation.