Government to focus on the allied issue of water under the scheme Nal se Jal

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new government has shifted its focus to the allied issue of water after the country-wide sanitation drive with the Swachh Bharat Mission comes to an end on October 2, 2019. The focus will is carried out by the Ministry of Jal Shakti. 

Objective:
The scheme ‘Nal se Jal’ will be a component of the government’s Jal Jivan Mission. The Ministry plans to provide piped water connections to every household in India by 2024.
The ministry will also look at conservation of surface and groundwater and inter-linking rivers across the country. The idea of inter-linking rivers across the country was proposed by the late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in order to ease the irrigation and drinking water crisis.

Ministry of Jal Shakti:
The Ministry is led by Rajasthan MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Ram Lal Kataria will be the Minister of state. The ministry has been formed by merging the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation along with the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.  
The reason for the merger is to bring all aspects of water management and regulation under one department. The introduction of the Jal Shakti Ministry was announced in the interim budget of the NDA government.

NITI Aayog’s 2018 report:
A report by NITI Aayog reported that 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress and about 2 lakh people die every year due to inadequate access to safe water. It also stressed that by 2030, the country’s water demand will be projected to be twice the available supply. This huge demand will imply severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people which will eventually lead to a drop of nearly 60% loss in the country’s GDP.