Haritha Karma Sena to conduct water testing in Kozhikode city households

Members of the Haritha Karma Sena (HKS) will soon be deployed to conduct water testing in households in the Kozhikode Corporation.

HKS members, who are also part of the Kudumbashree, are being trained to use water testing kits to examine water in wells, ponds, and other waterbodies. “We have already trained four of them. They will train the others. There will be a minimum of 20 HKS members engaged in water testing in the city,” said the coordinator of the AMRUT scheme in the Corporation.

Water testing is one of the projects being carried out under the AMRUT Mitra, a special scheme under AMRUT, with the theme ‘Women for Water’. It intends to empower women self-help groups (SHGs) to play a key role in urban water management. It focuses on involving women in activities such as water quality testing, billing, and public grievance redressal, ultimately improving urban water access and quality. They earn ₹40 per hour as testing charge. Their service includes collecting samples, treating, and providing results. Testing water in all the 1.40 lakh houses in the city will earn them a tidy sum.

Besides water testing, the Corporation has implemented the Amrut Mitra scheme for park maintenance, renovation of waterbodies, property tax collection, and water metre reading.

“Kudumbashree workers maintain eight parks in the city at present, and they are planning to take up six more. They are involved in urban forestry and beautification of roadsides too,” the coordinator said.

Kudumbashree members involved in water metre reading are a great help to the Kerala Water Authority that is short of staff. The Corporation has immensely benefited from the services of the Kudumbashree such as delivering property tax demand notices and collecting the tax.

Around 300 Kudumbashree and HKS members are expected to be part of the Amrut Mitra scheme in Kozhikode city.