Funds To Increase Water Availability
The union ministry for water resources is arranging to provide an additional Rs 500 crore to suitable agencies to step up efforts to increase water availability in the country in view of the severity of the drought.
Apart from the state governments, good performing non-government organisations, the water associations and such other people's organisations will be eligible to receive the funds.
The additional funds will be used to expedite completion of pending projects besides for taking up new water conservation schemes.
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About Rs 15-25 crore worth of fund meant for water projects is lying unspent since last year. The ministry wants to utilise this money to begin with on the new water conservation schemes. In this, the ministry will take full care that the funds so received are properly utilised and for this it will constantly monitor the progress of the schemes.
A top level ministerial source who stated these asserted that if good agencies come forward to take up water schemes which include water harvesting measures also, then funds are no problem. Funds available with different government departments for the same cause will then be pooled and channelised in a coordinated manner.
Besides, the ministry is pressuring different chief ministers for expeditious completion of all big and small pending projects including the dams which have water supply components also.
About Rs 80,000 crore worth of such projects are pending completion for different reasons such as money constraint of the states, disputes leading to court cases, law and order problems etc.
The ministry is forking out money from the accelerated irrigation benefit programme also so that the projects where possible are completed fast.
A major thrust of the ministry, the official source said, is to encourage rainwater harvesting, particularly in urban locales.
For instance, in Delhi, the ministry has planned to conserve rain water at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Sansad Bhavan, Shastri Bhavan, Udyog Bhavan and other major government buildings besides at open spaces like the airports, Pragati maidan etc.
The conserved accumulated water will then be drained, filtered and used for ground water recharging, he said.