Water is life and water conservation is the need of the hour, hence to make sure that not a single drop of water is wasted, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to use rainwater for large-scale farming.
The Yogi Adityanath government has decided to fulfil the shortage of water required for farming in the drought-prone and overcrowded areas of the state with rainwater. Also, Yogi Adityanath is working to ensure the availability of pure drinking water in such areas.
The state government, in collaboration with the Union Ministry for Rural Development, is going to start 85 water harvesting projects in 4.50 lakh hectares of overcrowded and drought-prone areas, including 31 rain-fed districts, in 2021-22. With this project, people residing in drought-prone areas will have sufficient drinking water and farmers will also be able to get water easily for farming.
The responsibility to prepare the primary project report has been given to Greater Sharda assistant command project officer.
It is to be mentioned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Agricultural Irrigation Scheme and Watershed Scheme are being operated by the Union Ministry of Land Resources Development and Rural Development.
For its operation, a Watershed Cell Data Centre (WCDC) at the district level and a water collection committee at the gram panchayat level have been formed.
Under this scheme, water harvesting structures in villages will be constructed so that rainwater can be stored. Also, the skill development of over five lakh beneficiaries has been done.
It is worth mentioning that from the financial year 2009-10 to 2018-19, additional irrigation capacity was developed in an area of 53,978 hectares by constructing over 21,000 water harvesting structures, and the action plan for the financial year 2021-22 is ready.