Modi launches JalShakti, B'luru mandates rainwater harvesting

Karnataka soon to amend the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) Act to make usage of harvested rainwater mandatory for all buildings in Bengaluru. The Act will soon be amended to mandate all buildings across the city to harvest and use rainwater by installing a dual-pipe system compulsorily. Marking the World Water Day, the Karnataka government signed an agreement with multi-business conglomerate ITC Ltd to develop watersheds in 10-lakh acres of land across the southern state in three years. The move comes on the day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the rainwater harvesting campaign ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain’ ahead of the monsoon season, to prepare the country to collect rainwater and reduce dependence on groundwater sources, in honour of the World Water Day. The rainwater harvesting campaign is aimed at reducing the country's dependence on groundwater. In a video conference, the Prime Minister said before the arrival of the monsoon season, the work of cleaning tanks, ponds and wells has to be done, if the soil has to be removed, then that work should be done and their capacity for water collection should be increased by not having any obstructions in the flow of rainwater. The campaign comes on the back of severe water crises not just in rural areas but also in some urban and metropolitan areas of the country, most prominently in Chennai. Modi also oversaw the signing of a memorandum of agreement between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, to implement the Ken Betwa Link Project (KBLP), through which two tributaries of the Yamuna river—Betwa and Ken, will be linked through a canal and water from the Ken river will be transferred to the Betwa river. KBLP is the first project of the National Perspective Plan for interlinking of rivers, which was a plan formulated in 1980 envisaging inter-basin water transfer in the country. The government laid emphasis on securing India's water supply with the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission in August 2019. Under the Jal Jeevan Mission, the government aims to provide a functional water tap connection to every household by 2024. Under the scheme, during the lockdown, 1.9 million tap connections were installed in villages between April to June last year. Image SourceAlso read: Ken-Betwa interlinking dam to wait longer