Catch the rain

New phase of Jal Shakti Abhiyan should improve water availability

Given the urgency to alleviate widespread and steadily worsening water scarcity, the government has rightly decided to launch Phase-2 of its flagship water conservation programme Jal Shakti Abhiyan on April 1. Though various types of soil and water conservation programmes have regularly been taken up over the past several decades, the civic works related to them are rarely carried out before the onset of the monsoon, as should preferably be the case. The land is usually vacant and the water stock in the existing water bodies low or, in some cases, nil to allow maintenance and improvement works in the