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NEW DELHI: Seeking to strengthen water security of the country, the Centre has proposed to set up an action group of secretaries to take the agenda of India’s Water Vision 2047 forward by focussing on creating new institutional mechanisms at state-level and involving people, including farmers and other users, at the ground level as part of 22 broad recommendations.
Under institutional arrangement for effective water governance, the focus would be on constitution of water resources regulatory authority by every state and formulation of state water policy on the lines of National Water Policy.
Other suggestions, discussed during the two-day conference of state water secretaries in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu on Jan 22-23, include development of River Basin Plan for every river basins of the country, rationalised water tariff mechanism and framework for safe reuse of treated waste water in states.
Making his intervention, Union ‘Jal Shakti’ (water resources) minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat flagged the dire needs of “collaboration and innovation” to ensure sustainable management and reaffirmed the commitment to strengthen the “centre-state partnership” for achieving goals of water security in the country.
The Conference took note of fast depleting water resources, specifically due to indiscriminate withdrawal of groundwater, pollution and climate change that will lead to extreme events such as floods and droughts frequently.
Against this backdrop, 30 secretaries from states/UTs and senior officials from the Centre agreed on the need to create climate resilient infrastructure (storage facilities, inter-linking of rivers and sediment management), flood plain zoning and early warning system. Maintaining environmental-flow of rivers and use of state-of-the-art technology for short, medium and long term weather prediction and its impact on water resources were also suggested.
“Incentivising farmers for adopting significant crop pattern change and the need to take up artificial recharge to groundwater in a big way were also suggested,” said an official. He added that the states and UTs, in principle, agreed to work on all 22 recommendations of the first annual state ministers’ conference, held in January last year in Bhopal.
The 22 recommendations include increasing efficiency of water utilisation, intensifying water conservation programmes at every level, monitoring river health & maintaining environmental flow and undertaking appropriate flood management measures.
Prioritising drinking water and its source sustainability, building climate resilience, both demand & supply side management, enhancing water storage both at large & small scale, application of state-of-the-art technology, encouraging interlinking of rivers and enhanced people’s participation to take these actions forward are other key recommendations.
Under institutional arrangement for effective water governance, the focus would be on constitution of water resources regulatory authority by every state and formulation of state water policy on the lines of National Water Policy.
Other suggestions, discussed during the two-day conference of state water secretaries in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu on Jan 22-23, include development of River Basin Plan for every river basins of the country, rationalised water tariff mechanism and framework for safe reuse of treated waste water in states.
Making his intervention, Union ‘Jal Shakti’ (water resources) minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat flagged the dire needs of “collaboration and innovation” to ensure sustainable management and reaffirmed the commitment to strengthen the “centre-state partnership” for achieving goals of water security in the country.
The Conference took note of fast depleting water resources, specifically due to indiscriminate withdrawal of groundwater, pollution and climate change that will lead to extreme events such as floods and droughts frequently.
Against this backdrop, 30 secretaries from states/UTs and senior officials from the Centre agreed on the need to create climate resilient infrastructure (storage facilities, inter-linking of rivers and sediment management), flood plain zoning and early warning system. Maintaining environmental-flow of rivers and use of state-of-the-art technology for short, medium and long term weather prediction and its impact on water resources were also suggested.
“Incentivising farmers for adopting significant crop pattern change and the need to take up artificial recharge to groundwater in a big way were also suggested,” said an official. He added that the states and UTs, in principle, agreed to work on all 22 recommendations of the first annual state ministers’ conference, held in January last year in Bhopal.
The 22 recommendations include increasing efficiency of water utilisation, intensifying water conservation programmes at every level, monitoring river health & maintaining environmental flow and undertaking appropriate flood management measures.
Prioritising drinking water and its source sustainability, building climate resilience, both demand & supply side management, enhancing water storage both at large & small scale, application of state-of-the-art technology, encouraging interlinking of rivers and enhanced people’s participation to take these actions forward are other key recommendations.
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