River basin management is of special importance for Uttarakhand. Originating in the State, the Ganga river forms the biggest river basin in the country, said the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. He was speaking at a conclave on river basin management organised by the Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi.
Rawat said that from Gangotri to Gangasagar, the Ganga river covers 2525 kilometres across five states, while its basin accounts for 40 per cent of the nation’s irrigated land and sustains the food security of a considerable population.
Though life cannot be imagined without water, the kind of campaign which should be undertaken for water conservation is not seen. He said, “Today our rivers are on the verge of disappearing. There has been a drop in the water in 22 large river basins of the nation. If steps are not taken to address this, it will directly affect our increasing population, urbanisation, industry and agriculture sectors. The drop in water availability per person being caused by population increase is also a matter for concern.It was 2209 cusec metres in 1991 and decreased to 1545 cusec metres in 2011. Similarly, the water storage per person in India is 209 cusec metres whereas it is 6103 cusec metres in Russia and 1111 cusec metres in China. This clearly means that we cannot face drought for even one year.”
Rawat further said, “India generates 38,354 million litres of sewage per day but the sewage treatment capacity is only 11,786 million litres per day. We will have to change this situation. Our experts will have to dwell on this issue too. Our groundwater level is also falling consistently. We have exploited groundwater indiscriminately whereas the work which should be done for groundwater recharging has not been done. Similarly, the problem of arsenic contamination is being reported from 96 districts in 12 states where it is exerting a negative impact on the health of people and animals,” he said.
He pointed out that Israeli water conservation techniques are famous, especially their work in making salt water potable.
The mantra of ‘per drop more crop’ given by prime minister Narendra Modi has already been used by Israel to make tremendous progress in agriculture. He also spoke about the measures taken by the Uttarakhand government for conservation of water in the state. He also referred to work on conservation and rejuvenation of water sources and the mapping of water sources. The state has set a target of recharging and rejuvenating 5,000 natural sources of water by 2022, he added. Rawat said that Swami Vivekananda had a special attachment with Uttarakhand and had visited it four times.
