Revival Design Camp

Center for Urban Water Resources (CURE) organized a Design Camp titled ‘REVIVAL’ from 7th January 2020 to 11th January’20 at The DHAN Academy. The aim of the camp was to provide a platform from people (students/graduates/professionals/scholars) from different backgrounds to address issues of water scarcity and water pollution. Brochures, Posters, Webpage were created to reach out to the people across the country. 400 colleges across the country were informed regarding the camp through mails. Using the Social Media platform, CURE team shared and tagged their poster inviting architects, engineers, professionals of other engineering background to take part in the camp. The team received more than 80 registrations (students/practitioners/professionals). 25 candidates were shortlisted to attend the camp.

Day 1:

Introduction to the problem

The Event Coordinators have explained about the purpose of the workshop and listened to the expectations of the participants. Meanwhile, all the twenty-five participants introduced themselves and shared their interest and knowledge about cascade systems.

Visit to Thenkarai tank

The participants have visited Thenkarai Tank in the afternonn which is one of the oldest tanks in Madurai. Thenkarai tank being situated at the outskirts of the city, still functional and water being used for irrigation. Thenkarai tank is perfectly suited for the participants to study all the components of a tank in functional state. The effects of modernization and modern technology interventions (negative)can be clearly witnessed in the sluices of the Thenkarai, with the inappropriate levels maintained for the sill level of the sluices. The participants after having a detailed study at the tank, facilitated to a check dam constructed to divert water from Vaigai river to irrigational canals.

Day 2: Interaction with communities

Kulamangalam, Mangalakudi, Melamadai and Gomathipuram are the communities involved for the day’s visit.

The participants were facilitated to have an interaction with Kulamangalam community. The interaction lasted for two hours, discussing about the issues related to water scarcity, water pollution, awareness and importance of tank renovations. Later, the participants visited the Oorani restored by the Youth of Kulamangalam with the help of CURE.

Participants observing Marathagulam and Parshurampatti tanks (inlets and outlets).

Melamadai Oorani - Participants observing the present condition of Melamadai Oorani.

The day was concluded after visiting Gomathipuram tanks and having interaction with the community and visiting Vandiyur tank.

Day3: Walker’s club Meeting, Visit to Vandiyur, Roundtable Conference

Meeting with walker’s club was organized in the Sundaram Park, Vandiyur Tank. The association described their effort in making the park,the methods they followed for maintaining the park, and the struggles they had undergone for making the amenities in the park. The meeting lasted for one hour.

Transact walk around the Vandiyur tank to explore every inlet and outlet and also to make a detailed study of amenities present there.

Roundtable conference was held at Marriott with the experts, to have in-depth discussion about the Vandiyur Tank. Experts panel includes: Experienced researchers, practitioners from different fields – Ornithologist, botanist, archaeologists, engineers and architects. They all shared their perspective on Vandiyur and how to address the problems in consideration to their fields of interests.

Day 4: The day for design.

Key resource persons have addressed the experts, participants, and the CURE team with their lecture on how to address the water problem (the approach), and the points to be considered while rethinking the future of urban water bodies.

Day 5: Presentation and Valediction.

Total thirteen presentations were presented by the participants. Six individual presentations and seven presentations by batches. The experts involved in panel for the presentations are Ar. Vijay Anand, Er. Mohan Kumar, Prof. Pennan Chinnasmay, Mr. D Raghavan, and Mr. Premanand.

Sarat Chandra, one of the participants, received the best presentation award. His presentation included stage-wise (three stages) design steps for reviving the urban water bodies.