Governance
National Water Awards
- 08 Jan 2022
- 4 min read
For Prelims: National Water Awards , Initiatives to save water,Central Ground Water Board (CGWB).
For Mains: Need of conserving water, Government initiatives to save water.
Why in News
Recently, Uttar Pradesh bagged the first prize for efforts towards water conservation in the National Water Awards (NWA) 2020 organised by the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
- Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu bagged the second and third prizes, respectively, in the best state category.
Key points
- About:
- The awards are organised by the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti.
- The Jal Shakti Ministry had launched the first ‘National Water Award’ in 2018.
- They facilitate a good opportunity for the start-ups as well as the leading organisations to engage with the senior policymakers on adopting the best water resources management practises in India.
- They focus on the good work and efforts made by individuals and organisations across the country, and the government’s vision for the path to ‘Jal Samridh Bharat’.
- Objectives:
- To motivate individuals/organisations who are doing commendable work in the field of water resources conservation and management.
- To create awareness among the people about the importance of water and encourage them to adopt the best water usage practises.
- Opportunities Provided:
- Start-ups, leading organisations and people can engage, deliberate and strengthen existing partnerships on issues concerning water conservation and management activities.
- Need for Water Conservation and Management:
- Depletion of water resources due to overuse and decline in water supplies due to climate change is pushing India closer to the tipping point of water scarcity.
- Apart from these, several government policies especially pertaining to agriculture resulted in over-exploitation of water. These factors make India a water-stressed economy. In this context there is a need for water resource conservation and management.
- India’s current water requirement is estimated to be around 1,100 billion cubic metre per year, which is projected to go up to 1,447 billion cubic metre by 2050.
- India constitutes 16 % of the world’s population, but the country has only 4% of the world’s freshwater resources. With the changing weather patterns and recurring droughts, India is water stressed.
- According to the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), with 230 billion metre cube of groundwater drawn out each year for irrigating agricultural lands in India, many parts of the country are experiencing rapid depletion of groundwater.
- The total estimated groundwater depletion in India is in the range of 122–199 billion metre cube.
Related Initiatives
Way Forward
- People tend to neglect the importance of water conservation because in most places it is free of cost or charged nominally, so it is important for them to realise its importance and be aware of its degrading status.
- Initiatives like National Water Awards, along with the other government initiatives will help to create that awareness and motivate them to adopt the best water usage practises which will help India in becoming ‘Jal Samridh Bharat’.
