Signs Of Desertification In Anantapur

For the first time, signs of desertification have been observed in a village in the Rayadurg mandal of Anantapur district.

Disclosing this, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu said yesterday sand dunes had covered huts and trees in a village in the mandal.

The government was also considering stationing a senior official at Anantapur to oversee water conservation measures on a war footing to prevent the district going the Rajasthan way, he said.

The formation of sand dunes was first disclosed by the Commissioner for Rural Development, S P Tucker while the Chief Minister was discussing with the Collector of Anantapur district on water conservation measures in the course of a video conference in the evening yesterday.

 

Tucker had intervened to impress on the Collectors the need for taking up contour trenching on a war footing, saying that for the first time sand dunes were covering up huts and trees in Rayadurg mandal of Anantapur district.

Later the Chief Minister confirmed it while talking to media persons.

The Chief Minister set a deadline of 100 days from yesterday for the Collectors to complete contour trenching in their respective districts so that water from the coming monsoon could be stored.

He said he would review the progress of the contour trenching work every day in the morning for half an hour.

"I want every drop of water in the coming monsoon to get into the local soil and not go waste", he firmly told the Collectors. He would himself make surprise visits during the coming monsoon to see how the project was working.

The coming weeks, Naidu said, would see water conservation work on a massive scale all over the state. " Funds will not be a constraint. I shall get money from the World Bank, the Netherlands government and other overseas financial institutions for the purpose. There shall be no more droughts in Andhra Pradesh from next year onwards", he declared.

Naidu told mediapersons that the government proposed to promulgate an Ordinance soon to make rainwater harvesting compulsory in all urban areas. This will have to be done while obtaining building permission for construction of houses.

He said he had also called all the industrialists today for a conference to discuss measures for water harvesting within factory premises. Every industry with an area of 50 acres and more will have to take up massive water harvesting trenches within their premises.

The Pollution Control Board has directed the Collectors to ensure that every industry took up the water harvesting programme in right earnest.