Mumbai | April 12, 2022

Union Minister for Jal Shakti Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat today pitched for rainwater harvesting, water conservation, recycling and reducing dependency on ground water to solve the water-related issues of the country.  Addressing a National Water Conference titled "India Water Vision 2040 & Beyond" in Mumbai today, Shri Shekhawat said  the per capita availability of water in India has been falling and that India may soon become a water stressed nation’. He said ‘About 50 years ago, the per capita availability of water in India used to be 5,000 cubic metres. It has reduced to 1,500 cubic metres due to increased population and water usage’.

Shri Shekhawat further said the challenges for India in terms of water-stress get more complicated due to its geographical diversity and the global Climate change.  ‘India is a developing nation and the demand for water is going to increase further in the coming years”, he added.

Pitching for rainwater harvesting, Shri Shekhawat said the average annual rainfall in our country is 1184 mm. He said ‘About 4,000 bn cubic meters of water comes from the annual precipitation and the harvestable component is around 2000 bn cubic metres; our total water-bearing capacity on surface is less than 300 billion cubic metres’. This challenge brings with itself great opportunity of rainwater harvesting and water conservation, he added.

Jalshakti Minister said ‘as a nation, India is among the highest consumers of ground-water and we need to decrease our dependence on this resource’. He also suggested that recycling of water in all possible ways should be encouraged in our country.

Har Ghar Jal by 2024

Speaking about the Jal Jeevan Mission, Shri Shekhwat India will definitely achieve its target of providing tap water to every household in the country by 2024. He informed that several states including Haryana, Telangana and Goa have already achieved 100% of their targets. Jal Shakti Minister further informed that while 16.5% of households had access to tap water in 2019, the figure has increased to 50% now.

Union Minister Shri Shekhawat said Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has appealed to all the Sarpanches of the country to hold a Gram Sabha to discuss water related issues. The Minister further informed that 250 districts of the country have been identified as water deficient districts and emphasis is being laid on conservation of traditional water resources in these districts.

In the last two years, more than 2 lakh water conservation works have been carried out in 700 districts of the country and Rs 65,000 crore has been invested in water conservation, Shri Shekhawat said.

At the conference, Gajendra Shekhawat released a booklet titled 'Water Warriors' on successful irrigation projects. Individuals and organizations working for water conservation programmes were also honoured. Founder Director of Brahma Foundation Dr. Vijay Page, MLA Amrish Patel, MLA Ashish Shelar were present on the occasion.

Watch the full speech of Union Minister Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhawat here.

PIB Mum / Prarthna/PM

 

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