Question.
What are the recent measures taken to conserve water resources to meet the needs of agriculture and rural settlements? ( 63rd BPSC, 2019)
Answer.
As we know that the agriculture sector is the biggest consumer of water resources in India, so any scarcity of water resources can badly affect the rural settlements (villages).
There are two ways to conserve water resources:
- By increasing the availability of water resources.
- By reducing the consumption of water resources.
Recently, the Central Water Commission (CWC) has put more emphasis on awareness for water conservation and lifestyle changes so that water consumption can be minimized.
Following are some of the recent measures taken to conserve water resources to meet the needs of agriculture and rural settlements:
- 75 percent of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) funds were used to strengthen the reservoirs and the Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA) has focused on five aspects of water resource conservation:
- Water Conservation and Rain Water Harvesting
- Renewal of traditional water bodies
- Water reuse and recharging structure
- watershed development
- intensive afforestation
- Indian farmers are using flood irrigation techniques that cause water wastage, soil erosion, manure seepage into groundwater (groundwater pollution). Farmers in India use three to four times more water for the same crop than in the US and China. Now the government is focusing more on the use of sprinkler and drip irrigation techniques to reduce the use of water in agriculture.
- More emphasis is being laid on soil mulching to reduce water loss due to evaporation.
- More attention is being paid to the use of groundwater and the conservation of surface water.
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