Satyagraha launched to spread awareness about water conservation

New Delhi, Apr 19 (UNI) Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad today lamented that drinking water formed only three per cent of the total water available in the country and stressed on the urgent need to put a stop to wastage and pollution of water in the country.

Addressing a workshop on 'Jal Satyagraha yatra', a campaign to spread awareness about the need to conserve water, Mr Prasad said,''History will not forgive us if we are not able to provide this basic necessity to the people. Awareness can only take us a long way and Jal Satyagraha is certainly a very effective way through which we can make people aware,'' Doling out more figures on water scarcity front, he said 2,16,000 people did not have access to clean drinking water. ''While in 19 villages of the country a person did not even get ten litres water, on the other hand, there are 69,000 villages where 40 litres water is available per person,'' he pointed out.

He later flagged off a 'Jal satyagrah' from Rajghat, in which activists from Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh also participated.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz said the Government was working on a waterfooting on water management and conservation of water resources. ''We have drawn up plans to make sufficient water available for cultivation. We will take agricultural development upto four per cent under any circumstances. India will be a superpower not because of its industries but because of its agriculture,'' he said.

In his address, Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh said till the time the Government did not give full rights to the people over water resources, no lasting solution was possible. ''We must come together as a pressure group and ask the Government for this,'' he added.

UNI