Sigh of relief for clogged water bodies
Thursday December 15 2005 10:14 IST
COIMBATORE: Siruthuli has embarked on another experiment in water restoration for a better environment.
On Wednesday, the NGO joined hands with fishermen to remove water hyacinths grown in Selva Chintamani Tank in the city with a plan to make manure from the plant that has come up in most of the water bodies.
Siruthuli plans to convert water hyacinth, a very good organic matter, into manure by administering microbes (micro organisms) available in concentrated liquid state.
Adding jaggery and few other things can activate the microbes, which are generally in a docile state. The activated microbes will be sprinkled on the chopped off water hyacinth placed in the tanks in "wind rows".
These wind rows will be of 30-feet length, five-feet wide and five-feet high, basically exposed to wind.
"As the microbes start eating the water hyacinths, the excreta will turn into manure," says M Ramakrishnan, co-ordinator, Siruthuli.
Even if it is experimenting on water hyacinth for the first time, Siruthuli has tasted success in making manure from municipal solid waste through Pricol Rural Development Programme.
"About 5 tonnes of manure has been generated from solid waste in the past nine months," says Vanitha Mohan, managing trustee, Siruthuli and also executive director, Pricol.
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and few other institutes have certified the manure from waste to be of good quality.
The microbes technology has been adapted to perfection after a brief training in Auro Annam, an institute in Auroville, Pondicherry.
At present this institutes provides the microbes that are generated and multiplied further.
The basic concept is to use microbes as a catalyst. Already microbes are being used for a better environment. Sulur panchayat has been successfully using microorganisms to treat sewage water.
The Pondicherry institute that supplies microbes to Siruthuli has assured that this new project with water hyacinth as the raw material would certainly work.
If it works well, it may very well turn out to be a good income generation project. At present, fishermen are being used to physically remove hyacinth from water bodies. Once the experiment succeeds, Siruthuli plans to involve self-help groups to have a tie-up with fishermen and carry on with production of manure.
It would be a good proposition for economically weaker sections as water hyacinths would continue to grow in these tanks as long as sewage flows into the tanks that is likely to continue.
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