The National Mission for Clean Ganga had funded a Project “Census Survey of Water bodies in Ganga Basin” in 31 districts of five main stem Ganga states, namely, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand & West Bengal through Quality Council of India (QCI). Under this Project QCI surveyed 1,100 government owned water bodies only and submitted a preliminary report. The details of these water bodies are:
|
S.No
|
State
|
Water bodies
|
|
1.
|
Uttarakhand
|
44
|
|
2.
|
Uttar Pradesh
|
329
|
|
3.
|
Bihar
|
113
|
|
4.
|
Jharkhand
|
56
|
|
5.
|
West Bengal
|
558
|
|
Total
|
1100
|
However, this is not a representative sample as more than 24 lakh water bodies exist in 33 States/UTs as per the census conducted by State/UT Governments.
Ministry of Jal Shakti launched the first Census of Water Bodies in convergence with the Sixth Minor Irrigation Census (reference year 2017-18) with the objective of developing a national database of all water bodies in the country. The census was conducted by the State Governments through nodal department identified in each State/UT for this purpose. The water bodies Census inter-alia collects information on all important aspects on the subject including their type, condition, status of encroachments, use, storage capacity, status of filling up of storage etc. (details in Annexure –I).
Further, National Water Mission, Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has issued directions to all States/UTs in the year 2021 to create GIS-based inventory of all water bodies/water structures using available maps from NRSC. The details of the state-wise intervention status of completed work from 29.03.2022 to 03.03.2023 is enclosed at Annexure-II.
This information was given by the Minister of State for Jal Shakti, Shri Bishweswar Tudu in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
*****
AS