A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his ‘Mann ki Baat’ made an appeal to save water amid a growing crisis in the country, the Centre on Monday launched a water conservation campaign, ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan’, with an emphasis on 1592 stressed blocks in 256 districts.
The campaign will focus on five aspects — water conservation and rainwater harvesting, renovation of traditional and other water bodies, reuse of water and recharging of structures, watershed development, and intensive afforestation, said Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat while launching the mission.
Modi in his monthly programme had pitched for conservation of rain water, saying there is a pressing need to make it a mass movement on the lines of the cleanliness drive.
Drinking Water Sanitation Secretary Parmeswaran Iyer said that officers from the central Government, led by additional secretaries and joint secretaries, have been assigned to these 256 districts.
The district administration will also nominate two members to join these teams.
The conservation efforts will be supplemented by initiatives like developing block and district water conservation plans and ‘krishi vigyan kendra melas’ to promote efficient water use for irrigation and better crop choices.
In urban areas, plans with time-bound targets will be developed for waste water reuse for industrial and agricultural purposes.
Plans will be developed for at least one urban water body for groundwater recharge in the block or the city. Scientists and IITs will also be mobilised at the national level to support the teams, he said.
The Government plans to run a water conservation, similar to the Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan as suggested by Modi.
In his first address in the second edition of monthly show ‘Mann ki Baat’, the Prime Minister also said ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach is not required in conservation of water.
A Niti Aayog report in June last year had rung alarm bella saying that 600 million people in India face high to extreme water stress in the country. About three-fourths of the households in the country do not have drinking water in their premises. With nearly 70% of water being contaminated, India is placed at 120th among 122 countries in the water quality index.
In its Composite Water Management Index report, the government think-tank categorised all the states in three categories - high, medium and low - based on their respective performances in managing the water resources.