Khattar seeks public participation in water conservation campaigns

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday called for public participation in the campaigns for conservation of water.

Addressing the inaugural session of a two-day ‘Water Conclave’ under Amrit Jal Kranti, organised by the Haryana Water Resources Authority at Panchkula today, the CM said in today’s time, there is a need to pay attention to water conservation for availability, demand and supply of water, rainwater harvesting along with proper use of water.

“For water conservation, public participation is to be ensured in the campaign to save water, as it cannot be successful without their participation,” he said.

Addressing the gathering, Khattar said at present 85 blocks of the state are in the dark zone. He said Haryana does not have any natural source of water and only rainwater and naturally flowing water from the mountains is the main source. Besides, the state receives an average rainfall of five inches i.e. 150 mm.

“In addition, water is supplied from the Yamuna River along with water of Satluj Ravi Beas through Bhakra Dam. We are not getting 3.5 MAF water due to SYL. Presently the water availability in Haryana is 20 MAF while the demand is 34 MAF. The challenge for us is to bridge this 14 MAF gap,” he added.

He said that to meet the gap of water demand and availability, rain water harvesting systems would have to be set up. “Apart from this, the capacities of reservoirs, ponds and lakes will have to be increased and ground water recharging will also have to be done. “In today’s time, the soil layer has become solid with the use of pesticides, due to which there is a big problem in groundwater recharge.

For this, there is a need to pay attention to the techniques of land reform,” the CM said.

Khattar said there is a need to work for water conservation as well as its management and to meet the demand of water in the present times, there is a need to adopt the concept of 3-R i.e, reduce, recycle and reuse.

Citing the example of Singapore, the CM said treated water is being used for drinking purposes there, while we are currently using treated water only for irrigation and other purposes. “We also need to study new technologies and move forward in this direction. Not only this, along with regulating the demand and use of water, its infrastructure has to be strengthened; only then will we be able to save water,” he added.