Water starved school in Nilgiris District provided water after 27 years due to the adoption of Rain Water Harvesting method .

A small village in Nilgiris called Thuthurmattam which lics 30 kms away from Ooty town was not having drinking water system for the past 27 years. It was quite surprising because even though the village is surrounded by tea estates and forest, the school could not get any water supply at all.

In order to provide drinking water supply to the school, PWD has taken up a water harvesting mechanism in the school by completing the water harvesting structure into two stages.

Collection of surface water during rainy season and supply of water after purification. It was estimated that since there was no perennial source nearly a well was dig in a valley approximately 2 Kms away from the school and then the water has been pumped by means of electrical motor to the school premises.

In the second stage, rain water flowing over the two places is collected in 15,000 litres capacity low level water tank, it is purified in the litter arrangements provided at the bottom and then it is supplied for use. The scheme has been implemented with the financial assistance from Hill Area Development Programme.

With the result of the Rain Water Harvesting method adopted as on to day there is a combined storage of 80,000 litres of water which will be more than adequate for the requirement of the school till the o n set of the next monsoon in May 2002. This was informed by the Secretary to Government, Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, Govt. of Tamilnadu in a statement.

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