Haryana geotags all 18k water bodies

Chandigarh: Since under the

Jal Shakti Abhiyan

geotagging of all water bodies was mandatory, the ponds authority along with Haryana Space Applications Centre has geotagged 18,104 ponds, water bodies of the state, thereby making Haryana the onlystate to geotag all its water bodies.Revealing this, Haryana chief secretary

Sanjeev Kaushal

on Friday assured the Union Ministry of

Jal Shakti

that the state government would continue to make concerted efforts to sustainably manage groundwater resources.“With this, several MICADA schemes are catered to shift from flood irrigation to micro-irrigation to promote the saving of water. MICADA is targeting using treated waste water (TWW) for agriculture and as many as 31 projects amounting to Rs 256 crore have been approved covering 330 MLD,” informed the chief secretary.Divulging the details about Haryana’s efforts during the meeting of committee of secretaries (CoS) on ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain (JSA: CTR)-2022’ campaign held through video conferencing on Friday, Kaushal said that a five-pillar strategy — institutional reforms, policy interventions, focusing on key projects and activities, convergence and implementation and governance — has been adopted by the state.The chief secretary said the Haryana government has been led from the front by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and several institutional and policy initiatives were taken by the state for water conservation and management.“The chief minister launched one of its kind ‘Mera Pani, Meri Virasat’ scheme, launched from eight districts even during the Pandemic.During the meeting chaired by Union cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba, it was informed that the National Water Mission will be implementing ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain- 2022’ covering both urban and rural areas of all districts of the country. The campaign will be launched on March 29, 2022, and will continue till November 30, 2022.