Work will be undertaken on a mission mode to recharge the water sources with a target being set for facilitating the revival of 12,000 dried, drying sources of water. This will entail work on 100 such water sources in the first stage, 500 in the second stage and remaining sources will be revived in other stages.
The Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand, Shatrughna Singh said this while addressing a meeting attended by officials and representatives of various organisations regarding the mission to revive springs in Uttarakhand at the secretariat here on Monday.
The Chief Secretary said that a spring-shed development team will be formed under the Swajal programme which will have representatives of various Government departments concerned, Peoples Science Institute, Himmotthan and other non-Governmental organisations.
It was stated in the meeting that a campaign will also be undertaken to ensure the vital involvement of the community. The selection of water sources for revival, spring management group, training, data collection and the treatment of the recharge zone will be followed byt the facilitation of activities after the period of treatment.
Officials further informed that out of an estimated 15,0000 inhabited villages, 12,000 of the villages are located in the mountainous regions which are solely dependent on sources of water. Using geo-hydrology the recharge zone of the water sources will be identified and general engineering and flora will be used to enable the harvesting of rain water.
Recharging of the sources of water and traditional water conservation practices will also be undertaken.
Additional chief secretary S Ramaswamy, irrigation secretary Anand Vardhan, Ravi Chopra of PSI and others were also present int he meeting.