Between July 22-25, Eva and Sylvain along with Dutch Water Envoy Henk Ovink, travelled to Chennai for our project, City of 1000 Tanks as part of the Water as Leverage Programme. This time, the visit was focused entirely on stakeholder meetings and building partnerships with important dignitaries of the local government.
An official working lunch was hosted by the Principal Secretary of Municipal Administration and Water Supply and attended by the local administrators. The delegates discussed the future of the proposals developed by the team in the neighbourhoods of Mylapore, Chitra Nagar and Mambalam.
At SIPCOT, Asia's largest IT Office, the team conducted discussions of ongoing initiatives and opportunities for collaboration. Led by the Additional Secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu Mr. Hans Raj Verma, also the Tamil Nadu head of the newly inaugurated Jal Shakti Mission in India, the team also carried out site visits to the peri-urban areas to assess the ground realities in Chennai's water scarcities.
In collaboration with the Greater Chennai Corporation, the City of 1000 Tanks team is developing our Mylapore proposal for the Green Climate Fund.
With resilient on-ground partnerships, the team is now working on prospective pilot projects in Mylapore supported by the local elected representative as a first step to proving technical as well as socio-cultural feasibility. Watch this space for more updates.
With Mylapore MLA Dr. R. Nataraj (7th from left) ©Ooze
With Principal Secretary Mr. Phanindra Reddy (1st from right) ©Ooze