Parliament News: Step Taken By Union Government To Increase Water Availability and Conservation

Parliament News: The Government of India has initiated number of steps and launched various schemes/ programmes for making availability of water, its conservation and distribution. The details of some of the major schemes/ programmes are as under:

(i) National Water Mission has been launched with the objective of conservation of water, minimizing wastage and ensuring its more equitable distribution both across and within States through integrated water resources development and management.

Under this mission, a campaign namely “Sahi Fasal” has also been initiated to nudge farmers to favour agricultural crops which consume less water and to use water more efficiently in agriculture, as a part of demand side management.

Also, to promote dialogue and information sharing among participants on variety of water related topics, a monthly seminar series – “Water Talk” has been initiated with intended to create awareness, build capacities of stakeholders and to encourage people to become active participants in the conservation and saving of water.

(ii) Atal Bhujal Yojana, a Central Sector Scheme, with focus on community participation, demand side interventions and convergence of ongoing schemes for sustainable ground water management is being implemented from 1 April 2020 in seven States – Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

(iii) Har Khet Ko Pani (HKKP), a component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY), Repair, Renovation and Restoration (RRR) of Water Bodies Scheme was launched which aims to revive irrigation potential by improvement and restoration of water bodies by enhancing the tank storage capacity, along with other multiple objectives such as ground water recharge, increased availability of drinking water, improvement of catchment of tank commands etc.

(iv) The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) was launched by the Government of India on June 25, 2015 in selected 500 cities and towns across the country for a period of 5 years i.e. from FY 2015-2016 to FY 2019-2020, which has been extended for completing the grounded projects. The Mission focuses on the development of basic urban infrastructure in the Mission cities in the sectors of water supply, sewerage & septage management, storm water drainage, green spaces & parks and non-motorized urban transport.

(v)   Jal Jeevan Mission-Har Ghar Jal is being implemented by Government of India, in partnership with States since August, 2019, which aims at providing potable water in adequate quantity (55 litres per capita per day) of prescribed quality (BIS:10500) on regular and long-term basis to every rural household through tap water connection, by 2024.

At the time of announcement of Jal Jeevan Mission in August 2019, 3.23 Crore (17%) rural households were reported to have tap water connections. So far, as reported by States/UTs as on 06.02.2023, around 7.87 Crore rural households have been provided with tap water connections in last three and half years under JJM. Thus, as on 06.02.2023, out of 19.36 Crore rural households in the country, around 11.10 Crore (57%) households are reported to have tap water supply in their homes.

(vi) Jal Shakti Abhiyan-I (JSA-I) was launched in 2019 in 256 water stressed districts to promote water conservation and water resource management by focusing on accelerated implementation of five target interventions, viz., water conservation and rainwater harvesting, renovation of traditional and other water bodies/ tanks, reuse and recharge of bore wells, watershed development and intensive afforestation.

In 2021, “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain” (JSA:CTR) was initiated with the theme “Catch the Rain – Where it Falls When it Falls” to cover all the blocks of all districts (rural as well as urban areas) across the country. The focused interventions for JSA includes water conservation and rainwater harvesting, renovation of traditional and other water bodies/ tanks, reuse and recharge of borewells, watershed development and intensive afforestation.

Some other steps taken by the Central Government to control ground water depletion and promote rain water harvesting/conservation are available at the URL:

http://jalshakti-dowr.gov.in/sites/default/files/Steps_to_control_water_depletion_Feb2021.pdf

Furthermore, 15^th Finance Commission in its report for 2021-22 to 2025-26, has earmarked 60 percent of the tied grants for water and sanitation related activities of which 50 percent is water component to be utilised by Rural Local Bodies/ Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI).

This information was given by the Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.