Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday took another pivotal step towards ensuring that future generations have access to clean and safe water as he launched the biennial Integrated Water Resources Action Plan (2023-25).
“The plan aims to meet the twin challenges of water depletion and waterlogging. I am confident that the action plan will serve as a roadmap to achieve the targets of water saving and water management in the state,” the Chief Minister said at the launch.
According to the CM, the total water availability of the state is 20,93,598 crore litres whereas the total water demand is 34,96,276 crore litres, creating a “water gap” of 14 lakh crore litres. “All water related Departments have come forward and taken the ownership to conserve water through various demand and supply side interventions, which would save around 6.97 lakh crore litres or 49.7 per cent of water in the next two years,” he said. Khattar added that the maximum amount of water used in the agriculture and horticulture sector is 86 and five per cent respectively. Continuous efforts are needed to reduce water consumption by adopting water conservation methods, he added. He further said that the Agriculture Department has included various measures in the action plan.
According to this, 3.14 lakh acres of the area will be covered under crop diversification, which will save 1.05 lakh crore litres or 7.6 per cent of water. Similarly, Irrigation Department (including MICADA), Public Health Engineering Department, Panchayats Department (including Ponds Authority and Rural Development) and others (PWD, ULB, Forest, and Education (Higher, Technical and Secondary) have also given measures for water resources. Further, a two-day Water Conclave was recently held, Khattar said. The main objective of the conclave was to discuss an Integrated Water Resources Management Strategy and Approach in view of the depleting groundwater levels. While highlighting the importance of the substantial use of natural resources, the Chief Minister became visibly emotional and said, “We launched the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao campaign to save our daughters. Now Mother Nature is calling us to save her. Therefore, I urge everyone to use natural resources substantially and not exploit them.”
