Spend each Nrega penny on saving water till rains: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a call to all gram sabhas, district officials and people to make all possible preparations in the next 100 days for harvesting rainwater this monsoon. He said each penny allocated for Mgnrega should be used for water conservation till the monsoon arrives and emphasised that if women are in the forefront in such endeavours, they will yield unimaginable results.

“All efforts should be made in the next 100 days to prepare for rainwater harvesting… Just as preparations are made to receive a wedding party or a special guest,” Modi said, adding that the army adage of “more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war” applies to water conservation too.

He underlined that water governance has been given high priority by his government. Modi hailed the efforts in testing water and said during the pandemic, 4.5 lakh women acquired training in this.


“Till one and a half years, only 3.5 crore out of 19 crore rural households had tap water but now four crore new households have got it after the Jal Jeevan Mission was launched,” Modi said. He emphasised on judicious use of water as well.

Modi had said “catch the rain where it falls, when it falls” in his monthly Mann ki Baat address earlier.

During Monday’s programme, a memorandum of agreement was signed between Madhya Pradesh and UP on Ken-Betwa Link Project by chief ministers of the two states. This will benefit nine districts of MP and four districts of UP located in the Bundelkhand region. Modi heard stories of panchayats heads from various states about the efforts being made for water conservation and gave his own suggestions on how to improve the process.