Bhubaneswar | Jul 29, 2015: In recent years India is facing acute water shortage which has greatly affected the socio economic development of the nation. In view of this, a National Workshop on “India Needs Integrated Water Resource Management” (INIWRM-2015) has been held at Bhubaneswar during 22nd to 24th July 2015 under the auspices of Institute of Advance Technology and Environmental Studies (IATES), Bhubaneswar.

Prof. Dr. P. K. Jena, Former Director General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India and Chairman IATES, Bhubaneswar, in his presidential address during inaugural function stressed the need for an integrated water resource management in industrial, rural and urban sectors. In his address, he presented the procedure for making the integrated water resource management plan and appealed to the central and state governments, the mine owners and the industries to frame their respective programmes for integrated management of water resources and implement those as early as possible.

In the Workshop Dr. R. N. Patra, CMD, Indian Rare Earths, Government of India, was the Chief Guest and Mr. S. S. H. Naqvi, Executive Director (Project and Operation) Shri Jagannath Steels and Power Limited, KJS Ahluwalia Group, was the Guest of Honour. Dr. A. K. Tripathy, Director Programme Coordination, IATES, Bhubaneswar gave the welcome address and Dr. C. R. Mishra, Senior Scientist, IATES, gave the vote of thanks in the inaugural function.

Major topics those are deliberated during the Workshop cover different aspects of water resource development and management including Wetland Development, Rain water harvesting in the surface and recharging the ground water, Mines and industries having their own water resource management, Adoption of better water transport system, Water pricing, Improvement in irrigation programme with water conservation, Water quality and supply of drinking water, Participated approach with water resource management, Water pollution problems and remedial measures and Flood and drought control measures.

At the end of the three days Workshop, following recommendations have been made for submitting to the Government of India and State Governments and concerned industries for necessary planning and implementation.

1. Planning and development of integrated water resource management district wise considering requirements of stakeholders, the water resource available, and developing wetlands and water harvesting system should be carried out urgently by all state governments and the centre.
2. The Government should make necessary plans to increase the water resource through rain water harvesting and developing the wetlands and creating new wetlands particularly in the form of ponds and tanks. The local stakeholders should be involved in these programmes to implement and maintain the water bodies.
3. Augmenting / increasing the storage capacity of water by providing suitable check and small dams and medium dams on the rivers.
4. The space near the road side wherever possible, ponds with recharge pits in the trenches should be constructed, so that ground water can be recharged properly with rain water.
5. Cement concrete lining of the open canals should be encouraged and make mandatory for new canals to avoid loss of water.
6. During rainy season, ground water recharging for each household, nearby community centres, offices and local bodies should be encouraged.
7. Strict rules and regulations should be framed and implemented for treating the effluents of mines and other industries as well as the sewage of the urban areas before letting out these to the clean water bodies. It may be emphasized that, at present the effluents and sewage dirty water pollute extensively the rivers, lakes and other water bodies.
8. Government should encourage Private Public Participation (PPP) projects for municipal sewage treatment plant installation in all the cities.
9. The water supply should be charged rationally based on volume basis for all purposes including domestic, agriculture and industries.
10. The Government is giving power subsidy to the farmers on the hectare area or irrigation basis. Instead, the subsidy should be directly linked to crop yield / water use ratio. More the ratio more will be subsidy. This will reduce over pumping of ground water and saving a lot of water.
11. The Government should have intense awareness programmes on rain water harvesting, wetland management, effluent treatment, using water particularly in agricultural sector through drip and spray irrigation system and need for clean water for drinking purpose.

(Source: http://www.orissadiary.com/)