A total of 54 villages had been selected from 27 districts of Chhattisgarh for 'Jal Kranti Abhiyan' in the State.
Two villages in each district have been selected and a master plan has been drafted to conserve and make community use of water for the welfare of the entire village.
The State Government had already issued guidelines to various departments as to how to preserve and regulate maximum utilization of water. The villages had been coined as 'Jalgram' villages. People's participation will be encouraged in these villages.
Water Resources Minister Brijmohan Agrawal said that Union Water Resources Ministry had launched 'Jal Kranti Abhiyan' to conserve water in all the districts of the country.
He said the gap between supply and demand will be assessed in all the 54 selected villages. Efforts will be made to spread awareness among the masses regarding the conservation of water.
Women in the Panchayats will be encouraged to become 'jal mitra' in all the 'Jalgram' villages. To augment the supply of water 'Neer Nari' and 'Jal Mitra' will be made.
The Minister added that defunct water tanks and lakes will be made functional by repairing them to augment water supply to the rural areas.
Steps will be taken to raise the water-table by channelising the rain water harvesting in all the villages. Modern technology will be used to conserve water. The villagers will be encouraged to adopt traditional methods of conserving water and harvesting rain. Reeva and Chedia villages have been selected in Raipur for the Water conservation Mission.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is among nine other states where the World Bank Assisted Project "Neeranchal" for the Watershed Component (Erstwhile Integrated Watershed Management Programme) of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojana (PMKSY) would now be implemented.
The decision was taken at the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, officials stated.
Apart from Chhattisgarh, the scheme would be implemented in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Telangana.
The total cost of the project is `2142.30 crore of which the Government's share is `1071.15 crore (50 per cent) and rest is the loan component from the World Bank.
The major objective of the Watershed Component of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojana (PMKSY) is for ensuring access to irrigation to every farm and efficient use of water.
Neeranchal will translate into better implementation outcomes of PMKSY. The programme will lead to reducing surface run-off of rainwater, increasing recharge of ground water and better availability of water in rainfed areas resulting in incremental rainfed agriculture productivity, enhanced milk yield and increased cropping intensity through better convergence related programmes in project areas.
Neeranchal is designed to further strengthen and provide technical assistance to the Watershed Component of PMKSY, in particular and all components of PMKSY, in general, to enhance its delivery capacity. Neeranchal will support the Watershed component of PMKSY (erstwhile IWMP) which was implemented by the Department of land Resources (DolR) in 28 States.
Watershed development projects are area development programmes and all people living in the project area will be benefitted.
The Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) was implemented since 2009-10 by the DolR, for supporting watershed development in 28 States. From 2015-16 onwards, the IWMP will be implemented as the Watershed Component of PMKSY.
The potential of the watershed approach followed by the erstwhile IWMP to support both conservation and production outcomes including the availability of water in rainfed areas, catering to the needs of small and marginal farmers as well as the asset-less, including women, has been successfully demonstrated at scale across various States of India.
However, despite these successes, a number of challenges remain for watershed development to achieve better outcomes, including enhanced participation of communities, building stronger capacities and systems to plan, implement, monitor and post-project sustainability of local institutions and assets. These challenges, if not resolved, can result in implementation delays, slow disbursements and benefits, officials stated.