The Government has requested all the States to ensure completion of ‘Amrit Sarovar’ in a planned manner

The Niti Aayog, the Prime Minister-headed, says that around 60 crore people in the country face high to extreme water stress. About three-fourth of the households in India do not have drinking water at their premises and rely on unsafe sources of water. Nearly 70 per cent of available water is contaminated and our major rivers are dying because of pollution and other factors, pushing India to 120th slot among 122 countries in the water quality index.

According to the most recent study of the Central Ground Water Board data, as many as 256 of 700 districts in India have reported critical or over-exploited groundwater levels. These data are enough to understand how serious the water crisis has become in the country.

This grim situation has forced the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to embark on a new Mission termed as ‘Amrit Sarovar’. With a view to conserve water for the future, the Prime Minister launched it on April 24, 2022. The Mission is aimed at developing and rejuvenating 75 water bodies in each district of the country as part of the celebrations of ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’. Altogether, it would lead to creation of 50,000 water bodies of a size of about an acre or more.

This Mission has been launched with a whole of government approach in which six Ministries /Departments, dealing mainly with water conservation and sanitation issues, besides the Bhaskaracharya National Institute for Space Application and Geo-informatics (BISAG-N), have also been engaged as technical partners.

The Mission works through the states and districts, through refocusing of various schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi NREGS, XV Finance Commission Grants, PMKSY sub schemes such as Watershed Development Component, ‘Har Khet Ko Pani’, besides states’ own schemes. It may also be mentioned that the Mission encourages mobilisation of citizens and non-government resources for supplementing these efforts.

The ‘Mission Amrit Sarovar’ is to be completed by August 15, 2023. Around 50,000 such ‘Amrit Sarovar’ may be constructed in the country within this period. Each of these ‘Amrit Sarovar’ will have about an area of one acre with a water holding capacity of 10,000 cubic meter. So far, 12,241 sites have been finalised for construction of ‘Amrit Sarovars’ by states/districts, out of which, works have started on 4,856 ‘Amrit Sarovars’.

The Government is trying to ensure people’s participation in the Mission for success. For this, local freedom fighters, their family members, Martyr’s family members, Padma Awardees and citizens of the local area, wherein an Amrit Sarovar is to be constructed, will be engaged. It has also been decided that on every August 15, National Flag hoisting will be organised on every Amrit Sarovar site.

The Government has requested all the states to ensure the completion of ‘Amrit Sarovar’ in a planned manner, emphasising on the use of technology at every stage of the execution. States have also been requested to form the water structure users ‘association and impart required training for better development of the ‘Amrit Sarovars’. Technical and other concerns of the states have already been addressed and the states/UTs have given very positive responses to the Mission.

Coming back to the water crisis, a Niti Aayog report says that India is suffering from the worst water crisis in its history. The report goes on to add that 21 cities, including Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai, probably exhausted their groundwater resources in 2021.

Agriculture remains the main consumer of water stock in India. In rural India, 80 to 90 per cent of drinking water needs are fulfilled by groundwater resources. What is more worrisome is that groundwater levels in India declined by over 60 per cent between 2007 and 2017, and of the extracted water, almost 90 per cent is used in agriculture. According to a report by the Central Pollution Control Board, cities are home to 36 per cent of India’s population but account for 70 per cent of water pollution. This makes getting water in the majority of the places of the country much more difficult as the water table has dropped, making India the world’s largest extractor of groundwater, accounting for 25 per cent of the total. This puts especially women at a higher risk of vulnerability as they have to walk miles for water related needs in rural areas.

In a 2014 report, the Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation estimated that 70 per cent of India’s farming is rainfed. Yet, 65 per cent of its total rainfall ends up in the sea. Water pollution is another cause of worry, which further vitiates the problem. Clearly, we all need to work towards efficient and optimal utilization of water and recycling with a sense of urgency.

(The author is a senior journalist)