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MAZHAPOLIMA

Mazhapolima is a ground water recharge programme, feeding homestead open wells through roof water harvesting.  Homestead open dug wells are the most vital water resources of the Kerala state. As per the Census Statistics of 2001, 75% of the households in Kerala depend upon the wells. And therefore, rejuvenating the pockets of unconfined aquifers through open well recharging has added benefit to public as well as individual household wells. This is a technique promoted by Central Ground Water Board in India and vehemently popularized by Media since 2004 soon after the International Year for Fresh Water 2003. Though watershed activities and soil conservation measures are considered under Mazhapolima, the prime technique made use for the said project is recharging the ground water table by open well recharging with roof water harvesting. The project kick started from May, 2008 when likeminded persons and NGOs around Thrissur joined under the umbrella of District Administration for water conservation. Dr.V.K.Baby IAS, former District Collector of Thrissur District and the present Executive Director of Jalanidhi (Government of Kerala) was leading the programme from the beginning.

Mazhapolima has been successful to mobilize funds from private agencies working in water and sanitation sector while pooling resources of government for the Mazhapolima unit implementation. A Banglore based funding agency called ARGHYAM Trust was kind enough to support to form a project management unit in helping the implementation of Mazhapolima scheme.  Thus Mazhapolima Monitoring and Coordination Unit (MMCU) was set up in May 2009 as a Special Purpose Vehicle to undertake these tasks under Thrissur District Administration. MMCU started its operation from May 2009. 

While assessing the progress of the achievements and outcome since May 2009, MMCU has been instrumental in implementing 6665 mazhapolima units till Feb 2011 ie., within a period of 22 months. The peak months of implementation as shown in the chart are January to April.

While analyzing the pace of implementation, the speed seen lagged slightly when local self governments were entrusted directly to implement the scheme. Beneficiary selection by PRIs are seen rather slow. They are facing difficulties since there were low numbers of takers for Mazhapolima scheme in the absence of awareness on well recharge. Towards financial achievements, Government of Kerala has sanctioned Rs.1 crore to implement the programme. So far MMCU has implemented 4770 units from One Crore rupees availed from Government of Kerala and Utilization Certificate has already been submitted. The areas of Mazhapolima Implementation are given in the table above. 2295 Mazhapolima units have been implemented in the ground water over exploited block of Kodungallur. MMCU is now instrumental in spreading Mazhapolima units beyond Thrissur ie., to Bharananganam Grama Panchayat of Kottayam District as shown in the table above.