Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala on Saturday said that water conservation is the need of the hour and the government has fixed a budget of Rs. 1,100 crores for it this year.
Addressing a press conference at the Gymkhana Club in Sector-15A, Faridabad. Chautala announced the initiation of a campaign by the Awaaz Foundation and Rotary Club to revive 100 stalled borewells.
He said that a significant number of borewells in the city of Faridabad had stopped functioning as a result of the decline in groundwater levels. Due to this, a large number of people are not getting portable drinking water. He said that when this matter came to notice, it was asked to find an expert agency for recommendations.
After extensive research, it came to light that some people in Maharashtra are working on reviving the stalled borewells. Thereafter, these people were contacted and the entire work was taken up by Awaaz Foundation and Rotary Club. Now, this project is being started in Faridabad city and initially, 100 borewells will be revived under it. He said that in this project, a borewell will cost Rs. 50,000. Rotary Club and Awaaz Foundation will jointly contribute to it.
Replying to a question, he said that after Faridabad, this process of reviving borewells will gradually begin in the entire state in collaboration with other organizations and industrial organizations. He said work is being done in the direction of water conservation in the entire state and old ponds are being revived. He said that there are many districts in the state where there has been a problem due to groundwater levels and the water level has gone down considerably in the districts along the banks of the Yamuna.
The Deputy CM said that it is necessary to install rainwater harvesting systems during the construction of houses. At the same time, if a farmer wants to install this water recharge bore system in his fields, then the government is giving them a subsidy of up to 75 percent.