Er. Sunil Seth
An effort by the people sitting in Power at the Centre to serve the Public with ‘Water’ at every door step can be categorized as ‘Jal Jeevan Mission-2024’ for rest of India and 2022 for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Leh in particular. One fine day, I, being part of P.H.E wing of UT of J&K was asked to attend a Workshop on JJM- 2022 to be chaired by the Chief Secretary, B.V.R. Subrahmanyam,I.A.S, the Divisional Commissioner, Sanjeev Verma and under the able guidance of the Worthy Commissioner/ Secretary to the Govt, Ajeet Kumar Sahu ,I.A.S, Deptt. of P.H.E. I&C , UT of J&K in coordination with the Administrative Wing headed by the Deputy commissioners and the Engineering Wing , headed by the Chief Engineer, P.H.E, Jammu. I was really enthused and encouraged at the end of the Workshop; the way, the whole day was utilized had never been witnessed earlier. The way it was conducted, the brainstorming; the synergy; the atmosphere of positivity and the bottlenecks thereof to achieve the intended target was never experienced before.
Every resource person present in the sorkshop was part of the solution than being part of the problem. The issues ranging from Acquisition of Land; Source Development; Source Sustainability; Under-Staffing of the Lower Staff; problem of salaries of casual workers; collection of Water Usage Charges and many more. Regularization; Augmentation; Strengthening and Retrofitting of the Existing Schemes were stressed than to the framing of DPR’s of the New Schemes which are Capital Intensive. It was a very interactive deliverance by the Commissioner Secretary to identify first the Low Hanging Fruits for the quick and speedy achievement of the targets. Synergy was seen between the Administrative and the Engineering Staff, giving stress to Interdisciplinary Approach and Convergence being the key to the targets to be achieved. Due diligence was given to Mapping of the Water Resources, whether Surface or Underground ending into the making of Water Conservation and Security Plans for effective Management of the Existing Resources which will safeguard the UT of J&K from the looming catastrophe of Day Zero and the areas entering into the category of Water Stress Areas like erstwhile Simla and Chennai. Coupled with it is the Management of Storm Water havoc resulting into Flash Floods and Grey Water being the end product due to reckless use once the Mission of Water for All by 2022.
General Public needs to be made aware that the Mission of Har Ghar Mein Nal is very Capital Intensive and its judicious use has to be administered to minimize the generation of Grey Water and the Recycling of it too being a costly affair. Social Awareness Program needs to be organized at the grass root level to make the End User aware, that how important the Water is for the generations to come. Integration between the Green, Blue and Grey Infrastructure needs to be given the priority. By Green Infrastructure here I mean is the efforts to reverse the Climatic Changes to its original position by way of Conservational efforts for the available Natural Resources. Nature Based Solutions; the concept has already taken wings in the Developed World by reducing the Surface Flows; resulting in the Recharging of the Depleting Ground Water Resources; by way of minimizing the deforestation and maximizing the aforestation. The Green Infrastructure efforts to be followed by the Blue Infrastructure by the creation of Check Dams; Wet Lands; Reservoirs; Ponds; Checking Excessive Irrigation and Rain Water Harvesting techniques; the natural way of recharging the Ground Water. Above all is the Management of the Ground Water which involves the Recycling of the Waste Water, be it because of the household use or the Industrial use. Treatment of the Used Water is too costly and is to be avoided as far as possible which is possible only once the judicious use of it is advocated religiously. Introduction of Periodic Quality Improvement Program for the Serving Engineers needs a due deliberation for them to be abreast with the latest technology for better implementation.
One candid suggestion which needs to be considered, is the introduction of Green Social Responsibility in the same way as the Corporate Social Responsibility is being implemented. Any and every Organization, be it Govt. or Corporate to take care of the environment by supplementing the nature with Green Efforts as the Development has to be there but it can be sustained one. To top it all, such type of Workshops should be made a regular feature as was conducted in the Institute of Engineers on the 19th of this month under the guidance of Commissioner/ Secretary , P.H.E.,I&FC, Jammu to harness the real potential lying deep inside of every Human Being. Highly positive was it as the every participant was part of the solution and not the problem.
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