New Delhi : National Mission for Clean Ganga, under this Ministry, has assigned the task for ‘Census Survey of Water Bodies in Ganga Basin’ to Quality Council of India (QCI) in 2020. The purpose of the study is to do mapping of all the water bodies in 31 Ganga districts (3,189 villages) of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand & West Bengal, for improvement/ rejuvenation of water bodies which are either dried up or working at less than full efficiency.
The study would bring out the status of water bodies in the above referred regions of the country.
Works related to enumeration of water bodies, their protection and improvement of their water level, comes under the purview of State Government concerned. However, formal as well as informal advisory in this regard is being issued by this Ministry to the various State Governments on different occasions. Further, this Ministry also supplements the efforts of the State Governments in this regard, as per details below.
- This Ministry undertakes minor irrigation census from time to time, which also captures information pertaining to water bodies in the country. As per the latest census, being 5th minor irrigation census with reference year 2013-14, there are 5,16,303 water bodies in the rural areas of the country which are being used for minor irrigation. Out of these, 53,396 water bodies are not in use for various reasons such as non-availability of water, siltation, salinity, etc.
- Central assistance for restoration of water bodies is provided by this Ministry under the scheme
“Repair, Renovation and Restoration (RRR) of Water Bodies”, which is a component of Pradhan
Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana – Har Khet Ko Pani (PMKSY- HKKP). The scheme aims at restoring the lost irrigation potential by improvement and restoration of existing water bodies.
This information was given by the Minister of state for Jal Shakti & Food Processing Industries, Prahlad Singh Patel in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.
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