Entries invited for innovative ground water augmentation

New Delhi, Jul 3 (UNI) The Ministry of Water Resources has invited entries for the National Water Award for innovative practices of Ground Water Augmentation and Recharge through rain water harvesting (RWH) and other artificial methods.

The annual award 'Bhoomijal Samvardhan Puraskar', carrying a cash reward of Rs one lakh, was instituted last year.

The objective was to encourage non-government organisations, village panchayats, urban local bodies with a population of up to one lakh, institutions/corporate sectors and individuals adopting innovative practices through people's participation in the targeted areas achieve sustainability of ground water resources.

Creating adequate capacity among the stake holders, promoting efficient re-use of water and to create awareness about the subject are the other objectives of instituting the award.

Ground water is a common resource and hence its protection and promotion of its sustainable use along with reducing human interference and excessive drawal of the precious resource are utmost important.

There is a need to augment resources and the availability of source of water and favourable hydrogeological conditions are vital for success for implemenation of this artificial scheme, Ministry of Water Resources said.

The rules for the award and eligibility criteria for all the four categories of entries and the percentage of weightage accorded to these achiements have been all been well defined for assessment.

The first category is for the NGOs/village panchayats, urban local bodies for adoption of innovative practices for ground water augmentation.

The second category is for institutions implementing farmer's participatory Research programme for promoting water use efficiency and effectiveness of the technology figure in the list.

The corporate sector promoting awareness in rain water harvesting, conserving water through recycling and re-use will be chosen for the award.

The fourth category is for individuals and institutions engaged in developing and implementing new techniques for RWH and other water recharge, the Ministry said.

UNI MCN SR PM1926