Paintings on saving water

CHENNAI: To one student at the state-level painting competition, water conservation was the depiction of the two sides of a Goddess — her benign form showing a world secure with its water needs and another violent side showing the world suffering from scarcity. To another,  water needed to be saved like savings made in a piggy bank, portraying the fact that every drop of water saved was as important as a coin slipped in through the hole of a piggy bank.These were but some of the 49 innovative paintings that were created by students across the state for a competition on Conserving Water for the Future, organised by the Central Ground Water Board. In its second edition, the national level competition aims at creating awareness on the need to conserve water among young minds. “Students from 4,629 schools in Tamil Nadu participated in the event, which saw over 2,20,000 entries. The top 50 students were chosen to participate in the state-level competition held in the city on Children’s Day. The finalists included 34 Class VI, nine class V and seven class IV students,” said DSC Thambi, regional director of the CGWB, South Eastern Coastal Region, Chennai. One student could not attend the state-level final owing to poor health.Yokaran, Chinmaya Vidhyala, Chennai, was awarded the first prize of `10,000, while Bhavica of Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan, Coimbatore, and Priyadarshini of SBOA School, Coimbatore, won `8,000 and `5,000 respectively, as second and third prize winners. These three students will also get to participate in the national finals to be held in January 2012, wherein the final winner will be presented `1 lakh.