Haryana to fill up dry ponds in rural areas

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today directed the officers to prepare district wise comprehensive plans to fill up all the dry ponds in the rural areas of the State by channelizing the rainwater so that same could be utilized for irrigation and other purposes.
Besides, he also directed to constitute district and sub- division level contingency teams so as to immediately deal with the problem of water logging anywhere in the State.
Khattar was presiding over a meeting of Rural Development, Public Health Engineering and Irrigation departments here today, an official release said.
The Chief Minister said that maximum water goes waste during the rainy season which should be tapped and therefore; a comprehensive plan needs to be prepared for filling up all dry ponds in the rural areas so that the water could be utilized for irrigation and cattle consumption.

He was informed that there were about 1583 dry ponds in the State of which 309 were filled up during the previous rainy season.
He also directed the officers to conduct a survey for identifying such areas where there is no need of ponds in both rural and urban areas.

He directed the officers to make a provision for utilization of about 1000 overflowing ponds of clean water. "The water of these ponds could be dedicatedly utilized for irrigating the nearby fields either by laying pipelines or through water courses, he said.
He also directed for the purification of contaminated water of ponds in both urban and rural areas.

He was informed that the Rural Development and Panchayats Department has initiated 1400 Project of five-pond system in the State and its positive result would soon be visible.
He said that while Irrigation Department would constitute teams in rural areas, Public Health Engineering Department and Municipal Corporations would constitute such teams in urban areas.
He also directed the officers to prepare maps of natural flow of water in the State so that concrete steps could be taken to ensure that it reaches at the tail end of every canal.
"This would also help in ascertaining the actual position about the excess water flowing in different canals and water bodies so that it could be optimally utilized with advance planning," he said.

He also directed the officers to identify flood prone areas in every district of the State and take steps well in advance to prevent any possibility of flooding in these areas.