Every Agricultural Field in the Country to have Irrigation Facility in the Next 10 Years

Inaugurating the National Convention of Presidents of Water Users’ Associations (WUAs) on Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) in the capital, the Minister said availability of water for utilization needs to be augmented to meet increasing demands through efficient use of water in all the sectors.

She said the issue of Water Use Efficiency is recognized as being very important for water security in the coming years. Irrigation sector accounts for about 80% of total water use and therefore, it is imperative that water use efficiency is much more important in case of irrigation projects.

The Minister said shortage of water is one of the major problems of the country. She said we have to stop misuse of water if we want to conserve our water resources.

Bharti called for public participation at a very large scale to conserve water resources of the country.

The Minister said people should not depend on Government for everything and society should take initiatives on its own on sensitive issues like water conservation.

The Union Water Resources Minister said that an effective WUA will work towards an equitable and uniform distribution of available canal water among all users, will ensure adequate repair and maintenance of watercourses and keep it in running condition by clearing of the silt and vegetation.

She said, “A functional WUA will ensure efficient and economical use of canal water and take assistance of agricultural extension programme to decide type of crop for optimum utilization of available water. This will not only lead to prosperity of the participating farmers and region but will also result in protection of environment and ecological balance by involving stakeholders in implementation of water budget and operational plan”.

She informed the convention that her Ministry has issued guidelines for farmers participation under Command Area Development & Water Management programme, recognizing the need for sound legal framework for PIM in the country.

Bharti said that her Ministry has been promoting PIM and has requested the State Governments to enact legislation for involvement /participation of farmers in the irrigation management at different levels.

She said though over 84000 WUAs have been formed in the country, their functional efficiency in ensuring efficient water use and equitable water allocation is far from satisfactory. Therefore, introspection at this juncture is vital, the Minister added.

The Minister expressed the hope that deliberations among the different stakeholders including farmer groups in this convention shall be very useful in the overall objective of increasing water use efficiency and provide necessary recommendations to find viable solution to the problems being faced in the irrigation sector.

The two day Convention has been convened with a vision to provide a platform for multiple stakeholders for consultation and to make them functionally effective, where they already exist and creating an environment for establishing WUAs where they are needed.

The agenda of the convention has been so designed that it ensures providing a free voice to farmers and WUAs enabling them to raise their concerns, limitation and challenges for making WUAs effective.

The Ministry envisages providing an open forum for the farmers and WUAs to discuss candidly the role of Union Ministry, State Governments and WUAs.

Anuj Kumar Bishnoi, Secretary of the Water Resources Ministry, Additional Secretary Dr Amarjit Singh and Chairman Central Water Commission Shri AB Pandya also addressed the inaugural session.