JAL JEEVAN MISSION

• The Minister of Jal Shakti has urged all MPs to support the ongoing “Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch The Rain” campaign in their respective constituencies and states.
• Such interventions would ensure water source sustainability in rural areas and would strengthen the ongoing Jal Jeevan Mission being implemented by the Ministry.

Important points:

• The Abhiyan with the theme- “Catch the Rain where it falls, when it falls’ was launched on the occasion of world water day (22nd March 2021).
• It covers all rural and urban areas of all districts of the country.
• Jal Shakti Abhiyan-I of 2019, covered only 1592 water stressed blocks out of 2836 blocks in 256 districts of the country.
• National Water Mission, under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, is the nodal agency for its implementation.
• A total of almost Rs. 14,000 Cr worth of water conservation related work is completed/ongoing under the MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) of Dept of Rural Development.
• The campaign aims at tapping rainwater by constructing artificial recharge structures, revitalizing existing ponds and water bodies, creating new water bodies, provisioning check dams, rejuvenating wetlands and rivers before the onset of monsoon.
• It is also planned to create a data-base of all water bodies in the country by geo tagging them and using this data to create scientific and data-based district level water conservation plans.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT