Port Blair, July 24: The Govt. of India, Department of Drinking water & Sanitation has launched the Jal Shakti Abhiyaan (JSA) for intensive water conservation measures in the identified water stressed blocks. The first phase of the Abhiyan has commenced from July 1, 2019 and will go up to Sept 15, 2019.
The South Andaman District comprising of the three blocks, Prothrapur, Ferrargunj and Little Andaman has been selected one amongst the 254 water stressed Districts. The scheme is being closely monitored by GoI and a four member Central team headed by Ms. Promoditha Sathish, Economic Advisor, GoI, who has been designated as Central Nodal Officer for implementation of the programme. The focus of the campaign is to take up activities in the following five critical areas relating to water conservation.
- Water conservation & rainwater harvesting.
- Renovation of traditional and other water bodies
- Reuse, borewell recharge structure
- Watershed development.
- Intensive Forestation.
The District Administration, South Andaman in collaboration with various departments and with the constant directions of GoI, has framed a District Water Conservation plan and identified key activities to be taken up during the campaign period. Amongst the various initiatives, it has been decided to revive the traditional Japanese wells, and install rainwater harvesting system in all upcoming govt. buildings.
According to the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) released by the NITI Aayog in 2018, 21 major cities will run out of groundwater by 2020 affecting 100 million people. It also states that by 2030, the country’s water demand is projected to be twice the available supply resulting in an eventual 6% loss in the country’s GDP.
The Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), NGOs, NYKs, PRIs, SHGs, NCCs, individuals have been requested to come forward and to be part of the campaign and collaborate with the District Administration in the successful implementation of the campaign. Focus must be laid on educating the children on the importance of conserving water, building structure to improve ground water level, planting of saplings, reuse and cleaning of water bodies, grey water reuse etc. The activities/programmes conducted by different organizations, individuals may be documented with photographs and may be sent by email to dcandaman2016@gmail.com. The selected photographs shall be published in the local daily ‘The Daily Telegrams’ under the column ‘JanShakti4JalShakti’ and also shared in the official twitter and facebook handles of the Andaman & Nicobar Administration.
