Declining water sources demand basinwise integrated development: Soz

New Delhi, Oct 19 (UNI) Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz said the increasing pressure on per capita available Water in the country stresses the need for basinwise integrated development and wise management of water resources.

Addressing the Members of Parliamentary Consultative Committee Meeting of his Ministry at Bangalore yesterday on the role and functions of Central Water Commission (CWC), he said it is imperative upon all the governments to look for basinwise development.

He said realising the importance of irrigation in improving the socio-economic conditions of farming community, the government had enviaged bringing one crore hectares of land under irrigation under Bharat Nirman programme. It is envisaged to attain this target by completion of ongoing irrigation projects, enhancing the utilisation, increasing water use efficiency and taking up of new schemes of groundwater.

The states will be provided with Central Assistance through Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme, Repair, Renovation and Restoration of Water Bodies and Command Area Development and Water Management Programme, he added.

About CWC, he said, it was the apex technical organisation playing a vital role in the planning, design and development of water resources and hydro power projects in the country. It was also initiating, coordinating and furthering in consultation with the State Governments concerned, schemes for control, conservation and utilisation of water resources throughout the country for the purpose of flood control, Irrigation, Drinking Water Supply and Hydro Power Development. The CWC had spread its activities in areas like flood forecasting, modern methods in design, dam safety and instrumentation, improving the efficiency of irrigation water use, assistance in resolution of inter-state water disputes and building up of consensus on inter-linking amongst the states.

The members present at the meeting were Mr S P Y Reddy, Parsuam Majhi, Manjunath C Kunnur, Dr. Ramakrishna Kusmaria, Prasanta Pradhan, Mohammad Muqueem, Sitaram Singh, Raghuraj Singh Shakya, Hiten Barman (Lok Sabha) and Mrs N P Durga(Rajya Sabha).

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