Karnataka's Indi taluk chosen for Jal Shakti Abhiyan

Various initiatives to be launched for water conservation

Jijabai Rathod at her lemon farm that has dried up owing to drought in Tadavalga village of Indi taluk in Vijayapura district.

With the objective of finding a solution to water crisis that the nation is going to face in future, the Union government has started Jal Shakti Abhiyan to conserve water, said Ajay Srivastav, the Nodal Officer of the project, here.

A team of officials, led by Mr. Srivastav, who visited several farm ponds in Indi taluk recently, told mediapersons that under the scheme, this taluk has been selected first as the one facing acute drinking water problem in the district.

He said that under the programme, various initiatives would be launched for conservation of water. These include rainwater harvesting, increasing underground water table, increasing forest cover, protection of traditional waterbodies, recharging of borewells, and so on.

“The primary objective is to save every drop of water for the present and future generation as we will face unprecedented drinking water problem in future if we don’t plan now,” he said.

Mr. Srivastav said that the Union government has constituted 250 teams headed by joint director-rank officials for implementing the project.

To a question, he made it clear that the Centre will not be giving any special funds for the project. He said water conservation would be done with the available funds. Appreciating the works taken up in the district to conserve water, he said that conservation should be done by considering Rajasthan as a model.

Earlier, Deputy Commissioner Y.S. Patil told the officials about the rain and drought status of the district. He told them that in the last 12 years, the district has faced drought eight times. He said that even during monsoon, the villages are being supplied water through tankers.