Public participation must be ensured for water conservation efforts: Haryana CM

Public participation has to be ensured for water conservation efforts Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Wednesday and called for the adoption of the 3R concept of Reduce Recycle and ReuseKhattar who was addressing the inaugural session of the twoday Water Conclave organised by the Haryana Water Resources Authority in Panchkula added that there is a need to pay attention to conservation in todays timeFor water conservation public participation is to be ensured in the campaign to save water as it cannot be successful without their participation he saidOne of the objectives of the conclave is to make people aware about water conservationKhattar before addressing the gathering remembered former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal who died at 95 on TuesdayKhattar said Badal always talked about the peasants and described him as a messiah of farmers according to a statementKhattar also dedicated the conclave to the Shiromani Akali Dal patriarchThe chief minister said Haryana is an agrarian state and the farmers are its most important stakeholdersHe said most of the water is consumed in industries and homes for purposes other than drinking However water is available in a very limited quantity and 85 blocks of the state are in the dark zone todayThe dark zone is an area where groundwater depletion exceeds the rate of rechargeHaryana does not have any natural source of water relying only on rainwater and naturally flowing water from the mountains the chief minister addedIn addition water is supplied from the Yamuna river along with that of the Satluj Ravi and Beas through the Bhakra Dam he saidAt present the water availability in Haryana is 20 Million Acre Feet MAF while the demand is 34 MAF The challenge for us is to bridge this 14MAF gap Khattar addedTo meet this gap between water demand and availability rainwater harvesting systems will have to be set up Apart from this the capacities of reservoirs ponds and lakes will need to be increased and groundwater recharging done he saidIn todays time the soil layer has become solid with the use of pesticides due to which there is a big problem in groundwater recharge Khattar said and added that there is a need to pay attention to thisThe chief minister asserted the need to work for water conservation and its managementAlso Read UPSRTC ticketing website hacked may take up to 10 days to restore itTo meet the demand for water there is a need to adopt the concept of 3R that is Reduce Recycle and Reuse Khattar addedThe Haryana chief minister said 200 sewage treatment and wastewater treatment plants have been set up in the state to promote the use of treated waterThe chief minister said the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran has started a new experiment in the developed sectors by connecting homes with two pipelines one for drinking water and the second for other usesCiting the example of Singapore Khattar said Treated water is being used for drinking purposes there while we are currently using treated water only for irrigation and other purposesWe also need to study new technologies and move forward in this direction Not only this along with regulating the demand and use of water its infrastructure has to be strengthened Only then we will be able to save waterDuring the conclave Haryana Water Resources Authority Chairperson Keshni Anand Arora gave a detailed presentation to the chief minister on several points including assessment of groundwater depth across the state availability of water its use and methods to fill the gap between demand and supplyFollowing the chief ministers instructions an action plan has been prepared by the departments to save water During the twoday conclave various points including the action plan harvesting of water and its proper use will be discussed she saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever