Jal Shakti Abhiyan

The government of India launched Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA), a time-bound campaign with a mission mode approach intended to improve water availability including groundwater conditions in the water-stressed blocks of 256 districts in India. In this regard, teams of officers from Central Government along- with technical officers from the Ministry of Jal Shakti were deputed to visit water-stressed districts and to work in close collaboration with district-level officials to undertake the suitable intervention.

Significance:

‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan’—is all set to combat the present health crisis and give a boost to the rural economy through its various components. This year owing to the COVID-19 emergency, and the availability of a large labor force in rural areas, the Abhiyan has started gearing up for the impending monsoon.
In a first of its case a Joint Advisory has been issued from the Department of Rural Development, Dept. of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Dept. of Land Resources & Dept of Drinking Water & Sanitation to all the Chief Secretaries of all States/ UTs, in context with the impending monsoon this year and the preparations to be done for water conservation and recharge which is of utmost importance for our country.
To promote water conservation and water resource management, five target interventions viz. water conservation & rainwater harvesting, renovation of traditional & other water-bodies/tanks, reuse and recharge of bore-wells, watershed development and intensive afforestation etc implemented during JSA.
Huge public awareness vis-à-vis water conservation/harvesting has been generated due to JSA and further, it has been observed that various stakeholders, viz. Government departments/agencies, NGOs, Panchayats, individuals, etc. have started taking steps towards water conservation.

National Water Mission:

To reduce and study the impact of climate change on water resources and to provide a comprehensive water database in the public domain.
Promotion of citizen and state actions for water conservation, augmentation, and preservation.
To focus on the vulnerable areas including over-exploited areas and also to increase the water use efficiency by 20%.
To promote the management of basin level integrated water resources.