Water being a State subject, it is for the State Governments concerned to take up programmes and schemes for protection of its water bodies. Role of Government of India is limited to providing technical support and, in some cases, partial financial assistance under the existing schemes.

Further, in 2019, Jal Shakti Abhiyan was launched by the Government. This was followed in 2021, by “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch The Rain” (JSA:CTR) campaign. Focused interventions under these annual campaigns taken up by the Government of India and the State Governments, inter-alia, include renovation of traditional and other water bodies/ tanks, enumeration, geo-tagging and making inventory of all water bodies, and removal of encroachments of tanks/lakes, and de-silting of tanks.

Government has also launched the first Census of water bodies in convergence with the Sixth round of Minor Irrigation Census (reference year 2017-18), under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme – “Irrigation Census”. The objective of the Census of Water bodies is to develop a national database for all water bodies in the country.

Though water is a State subject, Government of India has taken a number of important measures for conservation, management of ground water and effective implementation of rain water harvesting the country, including districts dealing with very low ground water level. Key measures taken recently in this regard are listed below:

1. During 2021-22, Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) under this Ministry has taken up the project on ‘Groundwater augmentation through artificial recharge in certain water stressed areas of Rajasthan and Haryana’. Artificial recharge structures will be constructed in water scarce areas of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer & Sikar districts of Rajasthan and Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Ambala & Panchkula districts of Haryana.  

2. Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal), launched by this Ministry in 2019, has its goal of demonstrating community-led sustainable ground water management which can be taken to scale. The major objective of the scheme is to improve the management of groundwater resources in select water stressed areas in identified states viz. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. 

3. CGWB has in the year 2018, taken up Artificial Recharge work in three aspirational districts, Osmanabad, Maharashtra, YSR Kadapa district, Andhra Pradesh and Jangaon district, Telangana. Under this, suitable structures were constructed to harvest the runoff water in stream to store at suitable locations for augmenting recharge to the ground water. 

4. Under Jal Shakti Abhiyan campaign, water conservation and rain water harvesting structures, as well as reuse and recharge structures, are being developed by the State Governments. 

5. In 2018, CGWB took up a pilot project in the eastern region of Maharashtra covering districts of Wardha and Amravati at five locations for construction of Bridge cum Bandhara (BCB) for ground water recharge. The structures also serve a dual purpose of transportation as well as storage of water in the upstream side for drinking and irrigational needs. The project was completed in 2020. 

6. Since XII Plan, CGWB has also taken up Aquifer Mapping and Management Programme for the entire country, including low ground water level districts. Under this, aquifer mapping is aimed to delineate aquifer disposition and their characterization for preparation of aquifer/ area specific ground water management plans with community participation.  

7. Further, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) also has provisions for public works relating to natural resource management, water conservation and water harvesting structures to augment and improve ground water like underground dykes, earthen dams, stop dams, check dams and roof top rain water harvesting structures in public buildings.

  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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BY/AS

(Release ID: 1780933)