World Water Day: PM Modi to launch ‘Catch the rain’ campaign; MoU to be signed for Ken-Betwa interlinking project
India’s much-awaited river interlinking programme is finally going to take off with a historic memorandum of agreement (MoA) slated to be signed between the Union Jal Shakti Ministy and Madhya Pradesh & Uttar Pradesh to implement the Ken Betwa link project even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the a nationa-wide ‘Catch the rain’ campaign on the occasion of World Water Day on March 22, 2021.
Modi will launch the campaign through video conferencing and will also be a witness to signing of the MoA on the first project of the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers between Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his counterpart in Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath.
The first phase of the ambitious Ken-Betwa link project, which is estimated to entail an investment of over Rs 18050 crore, had got delayed by several years despite receiving all clearances as the two states could not sign the MoA.
Prime Minister Modi has been batting for inter-linking of rivers in the country for years, saying the programme can help address the issue of imbalance between areas having excess water and those facing scarcity of the resource.
According to a statement by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the rain’ campaign will be undertaken across the country in both rural and urban areas with the theme “catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls”.
It will be implemented from March 22 to November 30 – the pre-monsoon and monsoon period in the country.
The Centre has planned for the campaign to be launched as a ‘Jan Andolan’ (public movement) to take water conservation at the grassroot level through people’s participation. It is intended to nudge all stakeholders to create rainwater harvesting structures suitable to climatic conditions and subsoil strata, to ensure proper storage of rainwater, the PMO said.
After the event, gram sabhas will be held in all gram panchayats of each district (except in poll-bound states) to discuss issues related to water and water conservation. Gram sabhas will also take ‘Jal Shapath’ (oath) for water conservation.
The Ken-Betwa interlinking project involves transfer of water from the Ken to the Betwa river through the construction of Daudhan Dam and a canal linking the two rivers, the Lower Orr Project, Kotha Barrage and Bina Complex Multipurpose Project. It will provide annual irrigation of 10.62 lakh ha, drinking water supply to about 62 lakh people and also generate 103 MW of hydropower.
The project is expected to be of immense benefit to the water starved region of Bundelkhand, especially to the districts of Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur, Sagar, Damoh, Datia, Vidisha, Shivpuri and Raisen of Madhya Pradesh and Banda, Mahoba, Jhansi and Lalitpur of Uttar Pradesh. It will pave the way for more interlinking of river projects to ensure that scarcity of water does not become an inhibitor for development in the country, the statement added.
