On the occasion of World Water Day on Monday (March 22), Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain’ campaign in a bid to conserve water through a participatory approach.
The water conservation campaign — launched under the theme: ‘Catch the Rain, where it falls, when it falls’ — will be implemented in all districts, rural as well as urban areas, of the country during the period March 22, 2021 to November 30, 2021 (the pre-monsoon and monsoon period).
Launched as a ‘jan andolan’ to conserve water and manage its usage, the campaign aims to ensure effective implementation of improved rainwater harvesting.
Addressing an event at the virtual launch of the campaign on World Water Day, Modi said it is a matter of concern that majority of rainwater in India gets wasted. He said the more the rainwater is conserved, the less will be the dependence on groundwater.
The prime minister urged that every penny of MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) funds be spent on rainwater conservation till the monsoon arrives.
The event was also attended by a number of panches and sarpanches from across the country. Participating through virtual mode, some of them also shared their experiences towards water conservation.
The campaign aims to take water conservation at grass-root level through people’s participation. It is intended to nudge all stakeholders to create rainwater harvesting structures suitable to the climatic conditions and subsoil strata, to ensure proper storage of rainwater.
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