NEW DELHI: Hundreds of directors or deputy secretary level officials from various government departments will be deployed at nearly 1600 blocks in water-stressed districts to carry out Jal Shakti Abhiyan.
Informing the secretaries of ministries about the deployment of officials, department of personnel and training has written letters saying that the senior officers designated as central prabhari officers will be working with a team of nodal officers at director or deputy secretary level and groundwater scientists and engineers apart from the State and district teams.
The teams will visit the identified blocks and districts coordinating the implementation of various water harvesting and conservation measures.
The Jal Shakti Abhiyan is a time-bound and mission-mode water conservation and irrigation efficiency campaign for water security in rural India. The mission will run from July 1 to September 15, and for selected states till November.
Total 1593 blocks including 313 critical, 1186 over-exploited and 94 with least water availability have been identified in the country. Officers, groundwater experts and scientists will work together with state and district officials in India’s most water-stressed districts for water conservation, water resource management and irrigation efficiency by focusing on the accelerated implementation of select central programmes in seven intervention areas.
Rainwater harvesting, renovation of water bodies, borewell recharge, watershed development and intensive afforestation are the key intervention areas of the programme.