India News | Bihar Developed 64,000 New Water Sources: State Minister Sharwan Kumar
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Bihar has developed more than 64,000 new water sources and rejuvenated 24,000 old ones in its mission to ensure the availability of water in the state, the state's Rural Development Minister Sharwan Kumar has said here.
Udaipur, Feb 19 (PTI) Bihar has developed more than 64,000 new water sources and rejuvenated 24,000 old ones in its mission to ensure the availability of water in the state, the state's Rural Development Minister Sharwan Kumar has said here.
Addressing the All-India State Water Ministers' Conference organised by the Union Jal Shakti Ministry, he said it is of utmost importance that meddling with nature should be minimal.
"We identified all water sources in Bihar and increased their capacity by desilting them. We revived 24,000 water sources out of a total of 47,000. Our focus is to develop new sources, from excess water areas to deficient areas," Kumar said.
The minister said the Bihar government has also constructed 64,000 new water sources to achieve the objective.
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He said 12,000 new check dams have been built in the state to ensure the availability of water for agriculture, for which the state received a national award.
Bihar is rejuvenating traditional water sources besides developing new sources through rainwater harvesting, Kumar said.
"We have built 37,000 new wells, water harvesting systems have been installed near 2.03 lakh handpumps and on 14,000 government buildings to store rainwater from their rooftops and using drip irrigation in 45000 acres of land," Kumar said in his speech.
The state has developed 1,065 nurseries and planted 17.80 crore trees, he said.
The Second All-India State Water Ministers' Conference, organized by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, started on Wednesday in Rajasthan's Udaipur.
Chief ministers of Odisha and Tripura, deputy chief ministers of Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Karnataka, along with 30 ministers and over 300 delegates are participating in the conference, a statement from the Union Ministry said.
The dialogue builds on the "Water Vision @ 2047", first formulated at the 2023 Bhopal Conference and further reviewed at the Secretaries' Conference in Mahabalipuram in 2024, it said.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)