The Central Ground Water Board, Raipur on Wednesday organized a day-long workshop cum training programme on ‘Participatory Irrigation and Water Management’ under 'Jal Kranti Abhiyan' programme in the city.
On the occasion, various issues pertaining to water including conservation, management, policy, importance of water conservation for future and others were discussed.
The workshop was attended by Secretary of Water Resources Department (WRD) B l Tiwari, Principal Engineer H R Kutare and senior officials of the department.
Addressing the gathering, Tiwari highlighted the importance of various methods to be adopted for water conservation and management. Besides, he also asked officials to take effective measures for ensuring clean drinking water to every village of Chhattisgarh.
Meanwhile, trainers from independent organization have imparted training of techniques for participatory irrigation and water management to two ‘Jal Mitra’ and ‘Neer Nari’ each from 54 villages of the state.
Notably,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 channelizing 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.