Manickal panchayat wins second place in the best panchayat category at the fourth edition of National Water Awards instituted by the Jal Shakti ministry. On behalf of the panchayat, president Kuthirakulam Jayan received the trophy, a cash prize and a citation during an event held at Vigyan Bhavan.
The panchayat was awarded the honour for the water conservation practices taken up by it under the Puzhayozhukum Manickal project since 2022. This was an integrated project which brought together related schemes of different departments like HarithaKeralaMission, central ground water board, Agriculture-notes-for-state-psc-exams”>Agriculture, ministry of rural EMPLOYMENT, and department of drinking water and sanitation and Irrigation department. Under the guidance of department officials, the panchayat cleaned four ponds, took up various water conservation methods such as groundwater rejuvenation, explored ways to increase the income of farmers through methods like paddy and lotus cultivation, fish farming conducted sensitisation programmes in all wards and even made drinking water accessible to places like Thampuran Para.
While Jagannadhapuram panchayat inTelanganawon first place, Manickal shared the second position with Kadavur panchayat in Tamil Nadu. The first edition ofthe NationalWater Awards was introduced by the department of Resources“>Water Resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation in 2018. For the fourth edition, a total of 868 applications were received by 31 October 2022. Among them, 41 applicants emerged to be winners under the 11 categories of the event.