In order to prevent further depletion groundwater table, deteriorating drinking water's quality, the district administration Ferozepur would come up with a district level water conservation plan, which will be submitted to the government of India for implementation, said Joint Secretary of union government Mr. R.K. Chaudhary and deputy commissioner Chander Gaind while jointly launching mission ‘Jal Shakti’ in the district.Presiding over a meeting with the officials of the various government departments in DC complex Ferozepur, Mr. Chaudhary said that the government of India has selected 225 districts of the country to launch this mission, where depleting water table is a serious matter of concern.Divulging more, the joint secretary stated that under the mission our main focus areas are: to uplift the groundwater level, improve the quality of and provide every household access to clean drinking water in the selected districts.In the first phase, a district level water conservation plan will be chalked out after the consultation with the experts of the field, and then this plan will be submitted to the government of India for further action, said the joint secretary adding that he said that at first the emphasis will be laid on the key areas like rainwater harvesting, restoration of traditional ponds in the villages, construction of watersheds and protection of drinking water.
The rural and urban areas will be targeted simultaneously to spread awareness about this noble cause, said Mr. Chaudhary. The deputy commissioner while convening the proceedings of the meeting said that the selection of these districts has been made through remote sensing technology, where the water table has reached in the serious level. He put emphasis on the need for setting up of water harvesting plants in government and commercial buildings, reuse of treated sewerage water, promoting crop diversification by breaking the paradigm of current farming, and using ground and canal water wisely for agriculture purposes, especially keeping in view the rains during paddy season to save precious ground water.This target can only be achieved by sensitizing people especially farmers to change their obstinate approach toward exploiting groundwater, said the deputy commissioner. He asked the officials to nudge farmers to sow crops like maize rather than paddy to save water, adding that Mr. Gaind exhorted farmers to avail the subsidy benefits under drip irrigation promotion scheme, where hefty amount as the subsidy is available to farmers they only have to spend Rs. 10,000 per acre to have a drip irrigation system.On the occasion SDM Amit Gupta, SDM Kuldeep Bawa, SDM Narinder Singh, and officials from various departments were present.