Dehradun: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Mr. Trivendra Singh Rawat inaugurated the water projects under “water supply, conservation and harvesting” campaign and World Bank assisted water project in semi-urban areas during a function held at IRTD auditorium at Survey Chowk on Thursday.
The Chief Minister Mr. Trivendra Singh Rawat also inaugurated the projects for natural source augmentation, Rainwater harvesting and launched the website of ‘Namame Gange’ project on the occasion. He also released a study material on cleanliness and hygiene for the school students.
He also flagged off ‘Jan Chetna Rath yatra’ to create awareness towards water conservation under the campaign that will last till 30th June. Chief Minister Mr. Trivendra Singh Rawat said that special efforts were needed to fight water scarcity challenges in the state. He said that the availability of water will become a serious problem in the coming years in the world and it was important to work for water conservation at both short term and long-term periods. He said that states must work jointly for water conservation. The Chief Minister also had discussions with Chief Ministers of Himachal, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in this regard. He said that due to the Tehri dam lake the level of Ganga river is stable and a water corpus should be formed for water conservation so that the rain water is harvested and accumulated for fulfilling the needs for irrigation and drinking water.
The Chief Minister said that water conservation was on the top priority of the state government and it has taken the decision of constructing three Lakes at Dehradun in past one year for which the tender process for Suryadhar has been completed. The budget has been allocated for the Song project while the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for Maldhung is being prepared presently. A decision to construct three lakes in Pithoragarh, Almora and Pauri has also been taken and through these lakes the water will be conserved and the eco system will also improve. He said that the target should firstly be set for any project. He said that under the water conservation campaign which started from 25th May last year, around 40 crore litres water has been conserved and this year the target is around 70 crore litre.
The state government has also targeted to rejuvenate Rispana and Kosi river considered lifeline of Kumaon and the work on these two rivers will be done under mission mode. He said that this year around Rs 200 crores will be spent on Water Conservation and related projects. He said that the rain harvesting is being started from the government buildings and Uttarakhand should create its own identity and make an effort for augmenting the eco-system through water conservation and plantation. He said that effects of water scarcity are being felt in Uttarakhand and with the support of Word Bank projects to augment water supply has been started in 35 semi urban area of 7 districts of the state. He said that schemes are being made to provide clean drinking water to every household by 2022.
He said that due to race of development the environment is being damaged which will result in water problem in future. He said that we must search for new planned ways to conserve water. He said that the water conservation works are being done through all linear departments of the government. He said that 15 projects have been taken up for water conservation this year and for rain water harvesting the work is on in big government houses.
Under ‘Namami Gange’ the government has targeted to keep Ganga river clean right from Gangotri to the boundary of the state. He said that the 132 villages on the banks of Ganga have been given the status of Ganga Village and we all must make an effort to keep Ganga water clean and free flowing.
Secretary Peyjal Arvind Singh Hyanki, Smita Mishra from the World Bank, director Swajal Dr. Raghavan, MD Peyjal Bhajan Singh, CGM Jal Sansthan S.K. Gupta and others were also present.
