Sunday, October 14, 2001
Payyanur. Ezhimala, the site of the prestigious Naval Acadamy being developed over a 1,000 hectare area, enjoys more rainfall than the State average, but 30 per cent of open wells in the highland and 20 per cent in the midland areas usually dry up during the summer season. Experts take it as an indication of poor recharging of aquifers of the area and also find that the water holding capacity of the soil in the highland and midland areas has reduced considerably over the decades.
The Environment Management Plan (EMP) for the Naval Academy conceived by the Navy with the assistance of Governmental and non-governmental agencies is borne out of the sense of urgency for launching a proper watershed management planning for the area. The EMP, which has a water conservation part and a social forestry part, is expected to benefit not only the Academy which will start enrolling cadets, as per the present plans, in 2004 but the people inhabiting adjoining areas of the Ramanthali panchayat as well.
`The entire Academy land used to be individual holding areas before its takeover for the project and now our plan is to restore the forestry in the area,'' says the Naval Academy project officer, Commander Anoop Kumar. The Navy has realised the potential water scarcity in the area recently, he says. ``Once the Academy project is completed, our water requirement is 8 million litres a day (mld) and it is the State Government's commitment to supply the required water,'' he says adding that works for laying the 40 km pipeline for bringing water from the Kakkadavu reservoir at Cheemeni are already under way. Studies conducted by the Hydrology Department has revealed that the groundwater level in the area is receding and the EMP has been prepared on the basis of this finding, he pointed out.
