Considering the stress on our water resources, Government has been emphasizing for an urgent need on water conservation and rainwater harvesting in the country through a movement with people’s participation. Accordingly, the Ministry of Jal Shakti launched Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) in 2019 as a ‘Jan Andolan’ to accelerate water conservation and rainwater harvesting at grass-root level through citizen’s participation across the country. The campaign was implemented in 1,592 water stressed blocks in 256 districts of the country. The focused intervention areas of the abhiyan included - water conservation and rainwater harvesting, renovation of traditional and other water bodies/tanks, reuse and recharge of bore well structures, watershed development and intensive afforestation. The major achievement of the abhiyan had been participation of crores of people in the intervention areas.

Jal Shakti Abhiyan could not be taken in 2020 due to restrictions of Covid 19 pandemic. As a part of JSA 2020, Ministry of Jal Shakti took up “Catch The Rain” campaign with the tag line “Catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls” to nudge all stakeholders to create rain water harvesting structures (RWHS) suitable to climatic conditions and sub-soil strata, to ensure in situ storage of rain water.

After overwhelming response of “Catch the Rain” campaign, the “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch The Rain” (JSA:CTR)  campaign was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister on 22 March 2021, the World Water Day, which was taken up in all districts (rural as well as urban areas) of the country during the pre-monsoon and monsoon period, i.e. from 22 March 2021 to 30 November 2021. The campaign, implemented with the main theme “Catch the Rain, where it falls, when it falls”. A lot of water conservation work was taken up under “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain” campaign under the five focused interventions of the campaign - (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. The campaign evoked a very good response all over the country.

Thereafter, in current year, “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain” (JSA:CTR)- 2022 was launched by Hon’ble President of India on 29th March, 2022 which is being taken up from 29th March 2022 to 30th November, 2022 in all the districts (rural as well as urban areas) of the country.  This is the third year that the country is, in mission mode, organizing a Jan Andolan to conserve rain water and recharge ground water. This is a concerted national campaign with the collective participation of all stakeholders to strengthen water security in India. The campaigns have been successful so far in creating lakhs of water recharge structures to improve water security and in creating water literacy and awareness among the citizens of the country,

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

 

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