NABARD continuing with its water conservation exercise undertaken last year in 40,000 odd villages that had received encouraging response launched the drive for this year as well. The Water Campaign during the current year got inaugurated on Wednesday which is expected to cover around 1,00,000 villages in water stressed areas, including Jharkhand.
The rural bank in a press communiqué said that the programme would be more specifically run where ground water is over exploited. “NABARD’s regional office in Ranchi launched the water campaign for the State on the occasion of World Water day on March on Wednesday. As per the time frame, the master trainers and Jal Doots will be identified before April 3 and the trainings to the Master trainers and Jal Doots would be completed during between 5 to 20 April, 2017. Subsequently, village level awareness training would continue during April and June,” said an official.
The programme was inaugurated by Additional Chief Secretary Amit Khare where Principal Secretary of Rural Development Department NN Sinha and senior officials of the SlBC, NGOs working in the field of water conservation and senior officials were also present.
Since NABARD has been implementing large number of watershed development projects in various States, the important learning and successfully demonstrated local technologies for efficient conservation and management of water resources and promotion of climate resilient agriculture through community involvement will be one of the key inputs to sensitise the rural community during the campaign, he said.
“In an innovative move, NABARD has proposed to identify Village Volunteers (Jal Doots) for a localised and more effective approach. These volunteers will increase awareness about various methods of rain water harvesting, efficient water use, recharging groundwater and integrated farming systems. They would also facilitate creation of water conservation structures and adoption of water efficient practices and technologies through convergence with the ongoing schemes of the Government and banks,” said Subrata Mandal, CGM NABARD.
The campaign would essentially focus on creating awareness among the rural community about the methods of water conservation, preservation and its efficient utilisation at various levels using the modern technologies like micro irrigation under ‘more crop per drop’ idea, traditional water management practices, adopting improved package of agronomic practices, etc.
As a part of the campaign, area specific contents covering different water management practices applicable to local conditions for various agro climatic regions, with emphasis on community participation is being developed.