Siriyur Water Meet - 10/3/2005

The water source for Siriyur people is from below the Ebbanad village area. For drinking the FD has constructed a check dam at Dhanakadavu in the Sigur RF area. The distance to the check dam is about 3 kms and GI pipelines are laid to bring water through gravity force.

The water is stored in the overhead tank (10,000 liters) of capacity and distributed to the settlement through one pipeline. Another pipeline is laid towards another GLR near the Temple which is again piped to a single house, from where the eight group houses people(Jennu Kurumba) draw water to their houses which is about 225 meters from their homes. There is another distribution to the FD quarters from the same GLR. From the same distribution another hosepipe is taken to irrigate a small field inside the village (belonging to Irula tribe Mr. Raman).

The source from Dhanakadavu is through out the year, but in the summer the water output is less. The villagers say, though there is plenty of water, the design and construction of the check dam with a filtration system is not complete and there is untapped flow of water.

The villagers complain about the distribution system inside the village, there has been lot of pipe breaking due to quarrels among the villagers. So, now only one pipe has been installed. The villagers wanted the distribution back in place without any problems.

When they don't have enough water during the summer they have to depend on the bore well for all water uses. The water is salty and earlier it had a kerosene pump and it is defunct. So the bore well has been installed with a hand pump. They say sometimes they get sick after drinking from the bore well. Due to scarcity of water, they used to get only one pot each from the Dhanakadavu source.

There are other sources inside the village area. There is a dug well of about 30 feet deep inside Saroja's field which is run by a single phase motor pump. The availability of water is more during the rainy season and the water is more in the water channel. Now, the motor pump is not functioning due to low voltage. They have hopes of converting the electric line from single phase to three phase line.

There are three SGHs formed in the village, of which two are registered and the other unregistered. Now they think they all can work united towards the water problems and forming of the Water Users Group.

Suggestions given by the villagers

The villagers wanted the pipeline from the check dam to be placed properly and bury the pipeline under the ground so there is no breakages by Bisons, Elephants etc. They say the pipelines placed in the check dam are washed away during the rainy seasons, so they recommend proper & permanent solution for the problem. They wanted each line with a separate distribution line with a tap within the village.

What steps to be taken

The eight houses of Jenu kurumbas have no drinking water, so the distance from the temple GLR to Indiranagar has been taken in GPS which is around 225 meters. A hose pipe can be given as of now for the shortcoming.

Survey to the check dam Dhanakadavu to be taken immediately and date is fixed on Wednesday 16th of March 2005. with the villagers to inspect the sight and take necessary steps to get more water.

Data collection through questionnaire to be initiated in the coming week..

Water User Groups to be formed for water management.

Women

1. Vasantha
2. Rajeshwari
3. Vijaya
4. Parvathi
5. Lakshmi
6. Sundari
7. Raseiamma
8. Malli
9. Susheela
10. Sumathi
11. Malliga
12. Maasi
13. Papaathi
14. Devi
15. Maarae K
16. Maarae K T
17. Masiniamma
18. Rasei

Men

1. Chandramohan
2. Selvakumar
3. Balan S
4. Mani
5. Raman K
6. Nilagiri
7. Kumar
8. Bantan
9. Murthi
10. Rangaswamy
11. Karthi
12. Maariappan
13. Kundan
14. Thonan
15. Basuvi

Keystone

1. Senthil
2. Shiny
3. Anita
4. Leo
5. Justin
6. Rajendra
7. Pratim