On 23rd February 2020, an inter-tank relationship meet was organized by the Center for Urban Water Resources (CURE) of the DHAN Vayalagam (Tank) programme at Madurai. 74 farmers from twelve Kanmais (Tanks) – Kulamangkalam, Veerapandi, Thirupalai, Kannanedhal, Mangalakudi, Siruvoor (Sakiliyangkulam), Kodikulam, Parasurampatti, Narasingam, Uthakudi, Thattangulamand Vandiyur– and also from three Ooranis (Ponds) - Melamadai, Kalthar and Uthangudihad participated in the meet. Mr. Santhana Kumar and Mr. Karthikeyan, Assistant Engineers (AE) of the Periyar main canal division also participated in the meet.The purpose of the meet was to explore the possibilities of forming Vandiyur Restoration Committee, to explore the activities for Phase II of ‘The Project Revival’ and the possibilities of building an inter-tank relationship among the associations in Vandiyur Tank Cascade system.
Farmers belonging to respective Kanmai and Oorani have occupied their respective roundtables. The whole session was categorized into three different phases: 1. Past condition of the Kanmai/Oorani 2. Present condition and 3. Future expectations. All the 74 farmers have brainstormed about the three phases associated with their respective Kanmai’s and Ooranis, and presented to forum, at the end of each session.
The meet gave lot of insights for the CURE team and the participants are able to spend more time on Phase II i.e., on the Present Condition of the water body; but they could not articulate much about the past condition as well as prospective vision for the respective water bodies. Upon debriefing the reasons, farmers expressed they couldn’t fathom the past conditions of the Kanmai/Ooranisincethe communities since they have been disengaged and disassociated with the water bodies. In the similary way, they stated reasons that why they couldn’t able to comprehend the future expectations of the water bodies since they never realized that the water bodies as communities’ property rather they thought it was the government’s duty to execute the renovation works associated with the water bodies.