Minister of Rural Development Inaugurates Workshop on Construction and Desilting of Checkdams and Water Harvesting Structures Make Water Conservation a People’s Mass Movement: Chaudhary Birender Singh

The Union Minister of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water & Sanitation Shri Chaudhary Birender Singh said that the States need to take advance steps to prepare for the monsoon of 2015 so that maximum water can be stored in those few months for the benefit of all. He was addressing the delegates from all states after inaugurating the two-day workshop on ‘Construction and Desilting of Checkdams/ Water Harvesting Structures’ in New Delhi today. He said that the idea of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi that a timely and advance preparation can enable a significant increase in capacity to store water in the multitude of checkdams, ponds, tanks etc in the country is a very practical and doable. This will result in two important things -improving the storage and thus rejuvenating these structures as well as reducing floods at the local level. This workshop is being organized with the view to kick start the process of planning to increase water storage for monsoon 2015. Chaudhary Birender Singh said that water conservation and harvesting needs to be a mass peoples’ movement. All sections of the society are required to work in a co-ordinate manner to efficiently harvest water. Efficient and scientific water harvesting is the first step towards revolutionizing water use in the country. It is important to keep in mind that the planning needs to be done at a landscape level, where the requirements of the upper and lower reaches and all the sections including agriculturists and others are taken care of to maintain equity and sustainability. Welcoming the participants, among them Shri Chandi Prasad Bhatt, Shri Suresh Khanapurkar, Shri Rajendra Singh, Shri Popatrao Pawar and Shri Premjibhai from Gujarat, the Minister said, these are the men from among us from whom we can learn a lot in making environment and water conservation a people’s movement. The Rural Development Minister said, very few countries in the world are blessed with abundant fresh water as ours. However there is acute shortage of water for irrigation and drinking purposes in many parts of the country. The situation may get worse if adequate steps are not taken in the right direction earnestly. The scarcity of water is largely because of inefficient use, unequal distribution and lack of awareness in people. Over utilization has also caused deterioration in water quality. We all know that availability of water is a key pre requisite for better sanitation in the country. As per the analysis of Ministry of Water Resources, the country has a potential of 3840 BCM (Billion cubic meter; 1BCM = 1 lakh crore liter) of rain water out of which 48% is lost in surface runoff while only about 11% goes into ground water recharge . Besides, we are able to use only about 55% of our utilizable water. About 63% of our agriculture land is still dependent only on rainwater. Water availability is the critical constraint in these areas and continues to drive poverty and low human development indices. Of the total water availability only about 300 BCM of water can be stored in the large dams of the country which is a small fraction of the total water availability. Building new reservoirs comes at a significant financial and environmental cost. Thus forms the value of having smaller but distributed structures for water storage which can increase the seasonal storage capacity of water in a meaningful manner. Land in many of these seasonal storage structures can be put to multiple use. Chaudhary Birender Singh said, We are aware of this challenge and therefore the government is implementing various programs in the rural development, drinking water and sanitation for better sourcing and use of water for domestic use, drinking and for agriculture. The Department of Land Resources is implementing Integrated Watershed Management Program since 2009. The main objectives of the IWMP are to restore the ecological balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources such as soil, vegetative cover and water. The outcomes are prevention of soil erosion, regeneration of natural vegetation, rain water harvesting and recharging of the ground water table. This enables multi-cropping and the introduction of diverse agro-based activities, which help to provide sustainable livelihoods to the people residing in the watershed area. Thus apart from soil conservation, the other main aim of the program is to improve surface and ground water availability through water recharge. The program aims to cover 5 crore ha of rainfed agricultural and wasteland. This is one of the important programs tying up water conservation with increasing agricultural productivity and livelihood in rural areas. Our watershed program is already the second largest in the world after the China. All we need is a technically sound and co-ordinated effort for better watershed management. Construction of water storage structures are one of the important interventions in the program. However, there are many check dams built in earlier programs which are silted or are damaged. Our country has great traditional of wisdom in water harvesting, proof of which is survival of tanks with a living history of more than 300 to 400 years. The traditional wisdom encompasses both maintenance and water management of these tanks. There many examples of community participation in tank management over the centuries in this country. However today we feel that this rich traditional wisdom is slowly being lost. They have to be surveyed and rejuvenated. The traditional water storage structures are fast being destroyed either due to siltation and lack of upkeep or due to the pressures of development. In addition to loss of environmental services, we are also losing vital storage capacity of excess rain water. It is important that these structures are surveyed and rejuvenated. Only then the efforts of the watershed programs will bear true fruits. However it has to be emphasized that improving the storage of water will have to be augmented with other vegetative methods like growing pasture, trees and horticulture to stabilize them and reduce siltation. The use of ground water for irrigation as against surface water has continuously increased with every passing years causing depletion of ground water which has reached crisis proportions in some regions of the country. Groundwater accounts for nearly two-thirds (66%) of India’s irrigation and 80% of domestic water needs. Planning Commissions also called for a for a participatory approach to sustainable management of groundwater based on aquifer mapping., Further, the plan calls for launching a massive programme for watershed restoration and groundwater recharge by transforming Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) into our largest watershed programme. There are multiple organizations in the States that are working in the field of water harvesting. Most of the time these departments work in isolation losing the opportunity of creating synergies and increasing effectiveness. It is important that water harvesting and storage is done in a collaborative manner by drawing up plans at the landscape level to improve the outcomes of the finances employed in the process. It is crucial to ensure that these structures particularly the Check dams & Nala-bands are built in right place that are technically feasible and are socially viable. It is important to ensure that not only they are properly constructed but are also properly maintained over time. Post- project maintenance of these assets is also very important. It is suggested to make use of latest technology for this purpose, both at the planning & maintenance stage. Remote Sensing (RS) technology needs to be extensively used in this task. These latest technologies not only ensures quality but also brings transparency in to the entire process of planning and implementation All types of landowners can contribute in this program of enhancing the storage capacity of the small water harvesting structures. These structures are largely based in wasteland fallow land and forest land. It is expected that states will at their level co-ordinate with various departments to fulfill this work. Farmers groups can also be encouraged where they can either build, desilt or repair checkdams by collecting money fully or by contributing a part of the expenditure. State Governments agencies can also design programs so that concerted work is done in this field. The key point I am trying to emphasize is the need to involve of people, right from planning to the execution stage and sharing the water. Social contribution is incomplete without Public Private Partnership (PPP) and involvement of corporate sector. I suggest that as we have an integrated approach to implement the strategy of improving the capacity of water harvesting structures by involving Corporates, Civic Societies, NGO’s along with Government in general facilitative role. Such an approach will be necessary for overall success of this program, the Minister of Rural Development Chaudhary Birender Singh said. The Secretary, Department of Land Resources, MoRD, Smt. Vandana Kumari Jena, the Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and sanitation Smt. Vijaylaxmi Joshi were present on occasion.