JAL SHAKTI ABHIYAN FOR WATER SECURITY - OPPORTUNITIES FOR CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS

 Paper published in i SOCIAL VISION - Vl 6, Issue 4 January - March 2020 with ISSN 2349-0519 

“Conserve Rainwater to Save the Water for Future

as Water is Priceless Gift of Nature for happy and healthy living”

 

ABSTRACT

Water is the priceless gift of the nature for the people to develop eco-friendly environment for leading happy and healthy life with better sustainability. It is the fact and reality that there is no life without water which cannot be imagined. It reflects the need and importance of water and its conservation, preservation, utilization, protection, and management. It is the tradition to worship water bodies known as Gangamata. Probably, it is one of the reasons that the poverty alleviation programme has concentrated on Roti (Food), Kapada (Clothing), and Makhan (Housing). In view of the processes of liberalization, privatization & globalization, modernization, business oriented development, and their consequences put more pressure on the natural resources in general and particularly on water resources. All such unhealthy causes and consequences have resulted for water crises both in quantity and quality including encroachment or disappearance of water bodies. Poor availability, accessibility and affordability for ‘Water’ and its mismanagement has affected the development and growth of the People, Communities and Nation with droughts, floods, hazards, disasters, crises, disputes, and violence which finally lowered their quality of life. Nation has got the vision of working for the Sustainable Development Goals for vision of Empowered India. To achieve such goals, efforts are going on to conserve, preserve, & utilize water with effective and efficient management. In this direction, Jal Shakti Abhiyan, a campaign to work for water conservation and water security and Civil Society Organizations do paly a key role to work with Government and Private on the mode of partnership. The models and initiatives are simple, participatory, flexible, scalable, replicable and sustainable to achieve water security.       

Statement of the Problem

Poor availability, accessibility and affordability for ‘Water’ and its mismanagement has affected the development and growth of the People, Communities and Nation with droughts, floods, hazards, disasters, crises, disputes, and violence which finally lowered their quality of life.  

Jal Shakti Abhiyan

In this direction, the latest initiative is “Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA)”, a campaign (launched on 1st July 2019 by Ministry of Jal Shakti, Government of India) for water conservation and water security. The campaign will run through citizen participation during the monsoon season, from 1st July, 2019 to 15th September, 2019. An additional Phase 2 will be run from 1st October, 2019 to 30th November, 2019 for States receiving the North East retreating monsoons. The focus of the campaign will be on water stressed districts and blocks. A large-scale communications campaign has also been planned alongside the JSA involving mass mobilisation of different groups including School Students, College Students, Swachhagrahis, Self Help Groups, Panchayati Raj Institution Members, Youth Groups (NSS/NYKS/NCC), Defence Personnel, Ex-Servicemen and Pensioners, among various others. Jal Shakti Abhiyan will work for Water Conservation and Water Security which aims for making access to Water as a right for All for Life.

Recommendations

The study made on Water Conservation and Water Security has gained priority and need to be continued and recommendations made include:

Ø  Creation of Awareness cum Advocacy on the ways to harvest, store, conserve, and utilize Water Resources and impact on the growth and development of People, Communities and Nation at large.   

Ø  Encourage students to be the volunteers as a change maker at all levels of Water Cycle with the use of E-Forums and other Technologies.  

Ø  Support students to take up the Project Works & Research Studies with priority on community based strategies and interventions.  

Ø  Support Institutes for conducting Trainings, Workshops, Conferences, Seminars, and other such events on various aspects of Water.

Ø  Develop Eco-Friendly Environment with effective and efficient utilization of Natural Resources and thus to secure water for all with better availability, accessibility and affordability.   

Ø  Support CSOs / NGOs to work with Government and Private (Corporate) on Partnership (GPCP) basis with Community Based Initiatives (CBIs) for better Participation, Accountability, Responsibility and Transparency (PART) along with Social Auditing and better visibility.