Over 3.7 crore people have joined the nationwide Jal Shakti Abhiyan

The Cabinet Secretary, Shri Pradeep Kumar Sinha, reviewed the work done so far under the Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA),and in particular the second field visit of the 1100 central government officers to the 256 most water stressed districts of India. He lauded the efforts and commitment of the officers in helping makethe Jal Shakti Abhiyan a people’ movement for water conservation.

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Shri Parameswaran Iyer, Secretary, DDWS, started the review by welcoming the 1100 plus central government officers and narrating inspiring case studies on water conservation stories from the field during the JSA period.

Later in the afternoon, a delegation from Israel, led by the country’s ambassador Rd. Ron Malka, made presentations on water management, water use efficiency, creating public awareness on water conservation and Innovation for Water purification.

The Minister of Jal Shakti, Shri Gajendra Singh Shekhwat concluded the review meeting with an inspiring address.He urged them to tap the traditional water conservation knowledge and improvise upon it with the help of the people. He also advised the officers to be abreast with modern water technologies and learn from water efficient countries such as Israel. He highlighted how each person had a major role to play in transforming India and making it water secure.

The JSA is a countrywide effort to enhance water security, especially in water stressed districts. In the past two months, JSA has delivered over 5 lakh local water conservation infrastructure in 256 districts. Out of these, 2.73 lakh are water conservation and rain water harvesting measures, over 44,000 relate to the rejuvenation of traditional water bodies, about 1.5 lakh are reuse and recharge structures and 1.23 lakh are watershed development projects. An estimated 3.7 crore people have already participated in the Abhiyan making it a Jan Andolan and about 12.3 crore saplings have been planted as afforestation intervention. Apart from the Cabinet Secretary and the OSD and Cabinet Secretary designate Shri Rajeev Gauba, other Union secretaries and more than 1100 central government officers and Assistant Secretaries attended the review meeting.