Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday will launch a nation-wide campaign for rainwater harvesting through video conferencing in connection with World Water Day, a Jalshakti Ministry statement said on Sunday.
He would also witness the signing of memorandum of understanding between Jalshakti Ministry and State governments of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for implementing Ken-Betwa link project, the first project among the ambitious national rive interlinking project.
The rainwater harvesting campaign of the Ministry, Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Cath the Rain, with the theme “catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls” will be implemented between March 22 and November 30 – the pre-monsoon and monsoon period in the country.
The campaign will be in both urban and rural areas of the country to take water conservation at grass-root level through people’s participation. It is intended to nudge all stakeholders to create rainwater harvesting structures suitable to the climatic conditions and subsoil strata, to ensure proper storage of rainwater, the statement said.
After the event, gram sabhas will be held in all gram panchayats of each district (barring those in the poll-bound States) to discuss issues relating to water and water conservation. They would take a pledge to conserve water.
The Ken-Betwa project involves transfer of water from the Ken river to the Betwa river through the construction of a dam and a canal linking the two rivers, the Lower Orr Project, Kotha Barrage and Bina Complex Multipurpose Project. It will provide water for annual irrigation of 10.62 lakh ha, drinking water to about 62 lakh people and also generate 103 MW of hydropower.
The Project will bring immense benefit to the water-starved region of Bundelkhand, especially to the districts of Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Sagar, Damoh, Datia, Vidisha, Shivpuri and Raisen of Madhya Pradesh and Banda, Mahoba, Jhansi and Lalitpur of Uttar Pradesh. It will pave the way for more interlinking of river projects to ensure that scarcity of water does not become an inhibitor for development in the country, the Statement said.