Madikebeedu tank waiting for facelift in Gonikoppa

Land belonging to tank has been encroached

Not very long ago Madikebeedu tank irrigated acres and helped farmers  to grow paddy and other crops.

However, owing to encroachment of the tank, the area of the tank has reduced itself to a canal. The reason for the encroachment of the tank is that the public lack concern over the tank.

The tank was covering five acre in Madikebeedu. The artisans who thrived in the village were depending on this tank for preparing the earthenware and were earning for their livelihood.

Later, a tile factory also came up on the banks of the tank. The tank was supplying enough water for the factory. Over, the years the factory was closed down. As the years passed, the public taps made way in the village and the villagers stopped using the water from the tank and the tank remained neglected.

As the silt in the tank increased, the water-level began to decline. With the decline in the water-level, community hall, toilets encroached the area of the tank. Former MP Lakshmi Sagar constructed a community hall for the Kumbara community members on the banks of the tank itself.

With the community hall being used for marriage and other purpose, the waste from the hall gets filled in the tank. It has been converted from a source of water to a pit full of weeds and waste. Even sewage water too enters the tank.

Once, the tank was irrigating acres of paddy fields. Now all the fields have remained unused owing to lack of water. With the deplete in the water level, even water- level in the neighbouring wells have also began to dry during summer.

Gram Panchayat member K K Srinivas said that lakhs of rupees was spent on taking up
the work on desilting. “Using the available funds under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the retaining wall is constructed around the tank.

We are panning to conserve the tank and use the water for irrigating the paddy fields. We have plans to make arrangement for installing washing stone in the tank vicinity, to help the villagers to wash their clothes.”