New Delhi: As the summer turns gruel, once again the cry and messaging to save water would intensify across the country. For Union and the State Governments the twin challenges of reviving the water bodies and saving the water remains.
The Kerala Government with a view to making people aware of water availability in their locality and to rationally utilise dwindling water resources, will release its first ‘water budget’ for local bodies.
The water budget, prepared by the Haritha Kerala Mission with people’s participation, is the first of its kind initiative at the local body level in the country. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will release the ‘water budget’ for 94 local bodies that fall under 15 block panchayats that have been selected in the first phase.
Haritha Kerala Mission aims at rejuvenating water bodies. Dumping waste materials, particularly concrete, are main reasons for the pollution of water bodies. Not only rivers, but groundwater also gets affected by this contamination.
Regeneration of water bodies with the support of leadership of Local Self Government institutions by exploring the possibilities of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme workers is the mission of Haritha Kerala Mission.
As part of these activities, 390 km long rivers and 34,289 km long streams have been revived. On December 8, 2018, the second anniversary of the Haritha Kerala Mission, a river regeneration programme was organized with people participation. Under the programme ‘Ellarum Jaashayangalilekku’ 137 water springs covering a distance of 210 km from various local bodies were cleaned up.
In addition to the water budget, the third phase of Haritha Kerala Mission’s ‘Ini Njaan Ozhukatte’ project, aimed at rejuvenating streams, will also be launched. The third phase of the ‘Ini Njaan Ozhukatte’ programme also includes the reclamation of streams in the Western Ghats.
A book that contains details of the ‘people’s mapping’ mapathon conducted in the run-up to the launch of the third phase, will also be released on this occasion. /BI/
