Venkaiah Naidu's five pronged strategy to meet water demand

NEW DELHI: Expressing concern over water scarcity in the country, Urban Development minister Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday suggested a five pronged strategy to ensure adequate water for drinking and irrigation needs.

Addressing the Plenary Session of 'India Water Week - 2015', a four-day international conference organized by the Ministry of Water Resources, Naidu suggested the following strategy for implementation on priority basis.

1) Create awareness among the people about the need for judicious use of and conservation of water

2) Inter-linking of rivers (Ganga - Cauvery)

3) Recycling and re-use of water

4) Rain water harvesting

5) Desalination plants for use of salt water

Stressing on the need to make rain water harvesting mandatory, Naidu said, he intended to recommend to states to make it a mandatory provision while approving construction plans. He highlighted the need to have check dams at various levels in rural areas.

Naidu said water is a scarce resource and every drop of available water needs to be conserved. Talking about the possibility of conflicts over water resources across the globe, Naidu called for international cooperation to meet water demand. "India has a population of about 17% of the world but only 4% of water resources. In urban areas, while the requirement is 135 litres. per person per day, only about 70 litres are being provided," Naidu lamented.

Naidu went on to say that Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati is 'very focussed' on rejuvenation of Ganga. He hoped that linking of rivers would be realised soon. He felt that the people have to be educated about the advantages of river linking schemes.

Naidu recalled that the inter-linking scheme was enunciated and a task force was set up under Suresh Prabhu's leadership during Vajpayeeji government's regime and that the scheme was found technically suitable and financially viable. He said the scheme would take care of the long term needs of the people and also address the issues of floods, droughts and shortage of drinking water.