Jal Shakti Abhiyan, venture to interlink rivers: PM Modi’s most formidable venture has been launched

On World Water Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain’ programme to be able to implement water conservation as a individuals’s motion. Also, taking the imaginative and prescient of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee ahead, “historic Memorandum of Agreement between the Union Minister of Jal Shakti and the Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to implement the Ken Betwa Link Project, the first project of the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers” was signed.The interlinking of rivers is being launched with a renewed vigour underneath the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti in collaboration with states. The plan to hyperlink rivers goes again to the Seventies when, Dr. Ok.L. Rao, a dam designer, and the then irrigation minister, proposed the “National Water Grid”. But the thought was placed on the backburner by successive governments.The Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA authorities adopted the thought and began engaged on it, however earlier than it might implement the venture, they misplaced energy to the UPA. The subsequent UPA authorities which was supported by the Left events couldn’t take the venture additional as a result of social activists had been in opposition to it. The social activists had been of the view that the venture could also be disastrous by way of value, potential environmental and ecological injury, water desk, and unseen risks inherent in tinkering with nature.The Ken-Betwa venture envisages fulfilling the water wants of the Bundelkhand area, which straddles each Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The National Water Development Agency (NWDA) had recognized 30 hyperlinks (16 within the peninsular areas and 14 rivers within the Himalayan area) for the preparation of feasibility studies.The Union Jal Shakti Minister, through the launch of the venture, emphasised the necessity for water availability to the poor and weak for sustainable improvement. “We need to make water available to the most vulnerable. At the same time, we need to build resilient systems that provide long term solutions for sustainable use of water,” stated Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Minister of Jal Shakti.Recently, a report launched by the federal government coverage tank NITI Aayog stated that the cities of the nation will face water shortage if water conservation and administration usually are not be carried out correctly. The interlinking of rivers will assist the cities in easy accessibility to scrub water. China confronted the identical drawback a couple of years again with its northern half affected by drought and southern half affected by floods. The Chinese authorities constructed the Grand Canal to hyperlink the Yangtze River and Yellow river to unravel the issue.Today, the Grand Canal is among the world heritage websites and it ended the drought and flood drawback to a big extent. It additionally gave agricultural prosperity to China. India must be taught from its jap neighbours and full the linking of rivers as quickly as potential for the prosperity of the individuals of the nation.The Indo-Gangetic plain of India has rivers which have water flowing by means of it one year a 12 months as a result of the supply of those rivers is within the Himalayas. On the opposite hand, the rivers within the Deccan plateau have water just for a couple of months a 12 months. If the rivers of the plains and plateau could possibly be linked, then neither the plains will endure from floods nor will the plateau face droughts.