The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi came with a greater initiative on Sunday with an intention to help the farmers. This year, the monsoon season is highly crucial for the farm sector as there are more than half of the country’s arable land which is rain-fed. On Sunday, Modi planned to initiate greater grassroots water conservation drive as the weak monsoon rains would promote millions of drought-hit people to the corner and shows the impact on the agricultural production in Asia’s 3rd biggest economy.
With the help of 70 percent of annual rainfall in India, people can farm the arable land. He said, ‘Only 8 percent of all the rainwater in India is conserved.’ After winning the second term of Lok Sabha Elections this year earlier this month, Modi said, ‘It’s now time to solve this problem.’ As per the reports from the India Meteorological Department, India has received only 24 percent minimal rainfall compared to the 50-year average in the week on 26th June 2019. This is the report based on the skimpy rainfall in the Central and Western regions of the country.
Due to the drought in fewer parts of India in 2018, several crops destroyed and left few cities and industries with water scarcity problem. PM Modi said, ‘There is no one formula to deal with the water crisis across the country.’ He further said that he had written to the significant members of each village across the country regarding the necessity of conservation of water in the previous month.
In the year 2014, Modi initiated the ‘Clean India’ mission and made it successful across different parts of the nation. Just like that mission, the Government will start Water Conversation Drive to store water in all possible ways. The PM said that there is an immense need to create awareness among the public regarding the conservation of water and follow traditional water management methods.
The Water Resources Minister, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said, ‘A key source of water, groundwater levels in 52% of wells monitored nationwide were lower in 2018 compared to last decade’s average.’ Himanshu Thakkar, the coordinator of the South Asia Network of Dams, Rivers, and People [SANDRP] said that this initiative will show the lesser impact on water conservation. He said that the Government must fix the problems such as rampant groundwater usage.
