With the water scarcity looming across the country, on June 30, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his first Mann Ki Baat programme after winning for the second term, urged people of the country to come together and make an effort to protect and revive water reserves on the lines of the Swachh Bharat programme that he has launched after coming to power in 2014.
Regretting the fact that only 8% of water received from rainfall is effectively used, PM Modi requested the citizens to join hands and save every drop of water as it will help to recharge country’s water reservoirs.
Stressing on the uneven monsoons and climate change, PM Modi invited people/NGOs to share various steps they take to conserve water on social platforms with a hashtag – JanShakti4JalShakti. He said putting all these methods in social media will help in creating an extensive database of those working in the field of water conservation. He also said that people should share all the traditional measures that were in use over centuries to revive water bodies.
He said, “ Come, let us join water conservation and involve ourselves in making a list of more and more innovative methods to motivate people to conserve water”.
PM Modi mentioned that the water scarcity issue in the country is significant. However, if 130 crore people come together and uptake various methods then a solution will come up.
The comment of PM Modi came a day before the launch of a ‘water conservation campaign’ in 255 water-stressed districts in the country. The Jal Shakti Abhiyan will begin on July 1 and continue till November 30 in 255 critically draught hit area. Soon after coming to power for the second time, the BJP government has formed a new ministry called Jal Shakti which promises to provide safe and clean drinking water to everyone.
The conservation campaign will try to take various steps to conserve water, which includes the construction of rooftop rainwater harvesting infrastructure, trenches, ponds, watershed structures, and check dams. Of the total 1,593 water stressed blocks in the 255 districts, the majority of them went dry due to irregular monsoon and depletion of reservoirs. The prime minister had written letters to ‘Sarpanchs’ and ‘Gram Pradhans’ throughout the country asking them to work on water conservation and rainwater harvesting. He in his programme mentioned the positive response that he has received. He said on June 22, scores of people contributed free labour, ‘Shramdaan’, across thousands of panchayats.
He also said that he has missed the Mann Ki Baat and that the programme is like speaking to his family about different things.
