New Delhi, Jun 15 (IANS): With the onset of monsoon in Kerala, Ministry of Jal Shakti has again accelerated the ongoing "catch the rain" campaign, requesting all the Members of Parliament (MPs) to take part in the drive.
Minister of State for Jal Shakti Rattan Lal Kataria has written personal letters to all the MPs, both from the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, to support "Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch The Rain" campaign in their respective constituencies and states.
The letter gives the details about the campaign and also informs the MPs about the progress made already. It seeks their support and contribution in sensitizing people to conserve rainwater during the upcoming monsoon season.
Kataria informed that the aim of sending the letter is to urge each MP to turn as a brand ambassador for this campaign in their respective constituencies.
"We all must come together and rise above the party lines to address the common problem of depleting ground water levels and water scarcity, in public interest." Kataria said.
The campaign with the theme-- "Catch the Rain where it falls, when it falls" -- was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of world water day on March 22 this year.
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 database 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.
The campaign covers all rural and urban areas of all districts of the country, unlike the Jal Shakti Abhiyan-1 of 2019, which covered only 1,592 water stressed blocks out of 2,836 blocks in 256 districts of the country.
Ministry of Rural Development has reported completion of construction of 1.64 lakh water conservation and rainwater harvesting (RWH) structures, incurring an expenditure of Rs 5,360 crore, while work is in progress on 1.82 lac additional structures.
A total of 37,428 traditional structures and existing water bodies have been renovated till date with an expenditure of Rs 2,666 crore and 42,000 additional structures are expected to be rejuvenated shortly.
A total of almost Rs 14,000 crore water conservation related work is completed or ongoing under the MNREGS of Department of Rural Development. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has renovated 1,258 RWH structures while adding 1.02 lakh new RWH structures.