Excelsior Correspondent
KATHUA, Sept 22: District Kathua is fast emerging as the model for water conservation practices. The district has achieved this feat by taking recourse to the Central and State Government initiatives to incorporate the provision for widening the scope of water conservation / harvesting in several flagship programmes and schemes.
Under that initiative, the Rural Development Department Kathua has popularize the scheme like MGNREGA to rejuvenate the natural resources of water like ponds, wells , Kuls and other traditional water bodies to at least fulfill the water needs of people and livestock as well as irrigation sustainability.
Deputy Commissioner Kathua Ramesh Kumar has prioritized the concept of water conservation and emphasized on creating awareness among masses regarding potential of water harvesting. He also opined for incorporating the provision of rain water harvesting while making structural designs of new buildings such as schools, panchayat ghars, community centres, anganwadi centres and health centres etc.
During the year 2015-16 and 2016-17 the department has taken up 182 works under renovation of ponds whereas 132 works has been taken up for constructing new ponds in across all 19 blocks of district Kathua. Out of total 19 blocks Gujroo Nagrota has renovated maximum number of ponds i,e 18 whereas in Billawar and Duggan 10 ponds were renovated during the period with an estimated cost of Rs 24.36 lakh Out of total works taken up by the department expenditure to the tune of Rs 110.064 lakh was incured for renovation of ponds whereas Rs 97.783 lakh were expended for constructing new ponds in the district.
The construction of new ponds were taken up by blocks wherein block Bani has distinguishly completed 23 ponds at an estimated cost of Rs 41.11 lakh whereas 20 ponds were created in block Barnoti with an estimated cost of Rs 52.68 lakh. The block Basohli has contributed significantly by constructing 9 new ponds at an estimated cost of Rs 13.69 lakh during the year 2015-16 & 2016-17.
The extensive exercise of Rural Development Department for developing water conservation assets have yielded results in shape of 135 ponds covering over 270 hamlets benefitting a total populace of 7980 during 2015-16.
Assistant Commissioner Development Kathua Dr Sunil Sharma informed that besides a regular plan under MGNREGA the district has rolled out plan of Focus Areas under MGNREGA where construction of farm ponds and renovation of water bodies were prioritized.
The Kathua District besides its varied topographical challenges has come up with its robust theme of water conservation/harvesting under the aegis of Rural Development Department. Spreading to the stretch of 2651 sq kms consisting of 19 blocks having 244 panchayats and 512 villages, challenge of water sustainability was enormous keeping in mind the topographical character like hilly and kandi areas. The need was felt to opt better water conservation practices by building infrastructure besides saving the contemporary water assets like wells, ponds and kools.
Besides this the Rural Development Department held an extensive campaign involving PRIs and women folks to sensitize people especially women to motivate all stake holders to be a part of this holistic water conservation campaign.
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