Drinking water crisis would be a major problem before the world in years to come and one needs to set up both short term and long term goals for conserving water said the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat while inaugurating a water conservation and harvesting campaign and World Bank assisted water project in semi-urban areas during a function held at IRTD auditorium at Survey Chowk on Thursday.
The CM called upon different states to work jointly for water conservation and mentioned about his recent discussions with CMs of Himachal, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in this regard. He suggested that a water corpus should be formed for water conservation so that the rain water is harvested and accumulated for fulfilling the needs for irrigation and drinking water.
Terming water conservation as top priority of his government, he said that the decision of constructing three lakes ( Suryadhar, Song and Maldhung) in Dehradun in past one year is taken.
Similarly a decision to construct lakes in Pithoragarh, Almora and Pauri districts has also been taken and through these lakes the water will be conserved and the eco system preserved, he said. The CM claimed that about 40 Crore litre of water has been conserved under the water conservation campaign which started on May 25 last year.
He said that the rain harvesting is being started from the government buildings and Uttarakhand should create its own identity and make an effort for augmenting the eco-system through water conservation and plantation. The CM said that the effects of water scarcity are being felt in Uttarakhand and with the support of Word Bank projects to augment water supply has been started in 35 semi -urban area of seven districts of the state. He said the government has taken up a target to provide clean drinking water to every household by 2022.
Speaking on the occasion, the Drinking water and finance minister Prakash Pant said that the water conservation works are being done through all linear departments of the government. He said that 15 projects have been taken up for water conservation this year and for rain water harvesting the work is on in big government houses. Under ‘Namami Gange’ the government has targeted to keep Ganga river clean right from Gangotri to the boundary of the state, the minister added. He said that the 132 villages on the banks of Ganga have been given the status of Ganga Villages.
The Secretary Drinking water Arvind Singh Hyanki, World bank representative Smita Mishra, Director Swajal Raghavan, Managing Director (MD) Peyjal Nigam Bhajan Singh, Chief General Manager (CGM) Jal Sansthan, S K Gupta and others attended the programme.
The CM also inaugurated the projects for natural source augmentation, Rainwater harvesting and launched the website of ‘Namame Gange’ project on the occasion. He also released a manual on cleanliness and hygiene for the school students. The CM flagged off ‘Jan Chetna Rath’ to create awareness towards water conservation.