With hardly 10 per cent water left in drinking water sources, situation of severe water scarcity looming on the Saurashtra-Kutch region in Gujarat in coming days.
Already people in remote areas of the regions have to stand in long queue for their daily need of water. Knowing the situation very well, the Gujarat Government has started taking precautionary measures. After few days, the region will have to completely depend on Narmada water. Hence, the State Government has decided to deploy 150 jawans of State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) along Narmada Canal Network in the region to stop possible incidents of water thefts.
Gujarat’s Water Supply Minister Vijay Rupani, who is also president of Gujarat BJP, said that in order to cope up the water scarcity situation in Gujarat, the State Government has already initiated some action including that of guarding the Narmada canal water.
According to Rupani, Saurashtra-Kutch region in the State witnessed two consecutive weak monsoons and as result of it the dams there not filled to capacity. There has been hardly 10 per cent water remained in different dams in the region and summer has just begun, he added.
Apart from Saurashtra-Kutch region, people in parts of North and Central Gujarat have also started complaining inadequate supply of drinking water. Situation may go bad to worse in the next month when mercury would also expect to touch 45 degree Celsius.
“The State Government has started a control room in the capital city Gandhinagar to monitor the situation. People can register their complaint to the control room related to water problem and even water thefts. The jawans of CRPF are doing round the clock patrolling to curb water theft from Narmada canal network. Various teams of the water supplies department are also engaged in checking thefts,” said the Minister, adding that eight districts, Amreli, Jamnagar, Devbhoomi-Dwarka, Porbandar, Rajkot and Surendranagar in Saurashtra, and Panchmahals and Dahod in central Gujarat are facing situation of severe water crisis.
In order to tackle this situation and provide drinking water to people of these districts, the State Government has already increased the water supply to these districts since last one month through the Narmada canal network, he said. In case of non-availability of Narmada canal, the State Government has made arrangements of setting up new hand-pumps and bore-wells, he added.
It is because of development of Narmada Canal network in the past few years and availability of Narmada water, the state government is able to provide drinking water, said Rupani. According to him more than 10,000 villages across the state have been connected and getting Narmada water supply through this network.