Ministry of Jal Shakti21-March, 2022 18:46 IST
Water Conservation Measures

The State of Uttar Pradesh has been awarded 1st prize in 3rd national Water awards in "Best State" category, for its efforts in the field of water management.

 

Water being a State subject, steps for augmentation, conservation and efficient management of water resources are primarily undertaken by the respective State Governments. In order to supplement the efforts of the State Governments, Central Government provides technical and financial assistance to them through various schemes and programmes.

National Aquifer Mapping and Management programme (NAQUIM) is being implemented by CGWB as part of Ground Water Management and Regulation (GWM&R) Scheme, a Central Sector scheme. NAQUIM envisages mapping of aquifers (water bearing formations), their characterization and development of Aquifer Management Plans to facilitate sustainable management of groundwater resources in the country. NAQUIM outputs are shared with States/UTs for suitable interventions.

 

Government of India is also implementing Atal Bhujal Yojana, a Central Sector Scheme, in 8774 Gram Panchayats of 81 Districts of Seven States, including Uttar Pradesh. The other participating States are Haryana, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. The focus of the scheme is on community participation and demand side interventions for sustainable ground water management in identified water stressed areas.

Government of India, in partnership with States, is implementing Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) to make provision of potable tap water supply to every rural household of the country at the service level of 55 litre per capita per day by 2024. For ensuring tap water supply in drought-prone & water-scarce areas with inadequate rainfall or dependable ground water sources, provisions have been made under JJM for bulk water transfer from long distances and regional water supply schemes. In addition, provisions have been made for source recharging, viz. dedicated bore well recharge structures, rain water recharge, rejuvenation of existing water bodies, etc., in convergence with other schemes such as MGNREGS, Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP), 15th Finance Commission tied grants to RLBs/ PRIs, State schemes, CSR funds, etc.

Government of India has launched AMRUT 2.0 on 1st October, 2021 for a period of 5 years (FY 2021- 22 to 2025-26), with the objective of providing universal coverage of water supply through functional household tap connections in all statutory towns in the country. AMRUT 2.0 focuses on making cities water secure through recycle/ reuse of treated sewage, rejuvenation of water bodies and water conservation.

Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare is implementing "Per Drop More Crop" component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana(PMKSY) which is operational from 2015-16 in the Country. The PMKSY-"Per Drop More Crop" mainly focuses on water use efficiency at farm level through Micro Irrigation (Drip and Sprinkler Irrigation System).

 ‘Sahi Fasal’ campaign was launched by National Water Mission (NWM) on 14.11.2019 to nudge farmers in the water stressed areas to grow crops which use water very efficiently, are economically remunerative, are healthy and nutritious, suited to the agro-climatic-hydro characteristics of the area, and are environment friendly.

The Hon’ble Prime Minister launched the “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain” (JSA:CTR) with the theme “Catch the Rain - Where it Falls When it Falls” on 22nd March 2021, the World Water Day, to cover all the blocks of all districts (rural as well as urban areas) across the country during 22nd March, 2021 to 30th November, 2021 - the pre-monsoon and monsoon period. JSA:CTR campaign had five focused interventions- (1) rainwater harvesting & water conservation (2) enumerating, geo-tagging & making inventory of all water bodies; preparation of scientific plans for water conservation (3) Setting up Jal Shakti Kendras in all districts (4) intensive afforestation and (5) awareness generation.

Central Water Commission (CWC) promotes water use Efficiency Studies (WUE) and Peformance Evaluation Studies (PES) of MMI projects in the States for which ‘Guidelines for improving water use efficiency in irrigation, domestic & industrial sectors, 2014’ and Guidelines for performance evaluation of irrigation system, 2002’ have been published.

CWC also promotes water conservation and water management for which CWC has  published "General Guidelines for Water Audit & Water Conservation” in 2005 to cover broadly three main sectors of water use viz. irrigation, domestic and industrial, with aims and objectives to introduce, standardize and popularize the water audit system for conservation of water in all sectors of water use and to enable improvement in the water use efficiency.  The guidelines have been circulated among all the State Governments for facilitating formulation of region specific, project specific, system specific and service specific guidelines.

This Information was given by the Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Shri Bishweswar Tudu in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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(Release ID :233407)