While the availability of water in Gujarat has improved due to a state-wide grid, the focus has shifted to improvement of quality of water. The state government has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Denmark, through the Danish Water Forum, at the ongoing Vibrant Gujarat Summit.
The MoU was signed in the presence of CM Narendra Modi and Danish ambassador Freddy Svane.
Giving an overview of the state’s water situation, principal secretary of water supply and water resources department Rajivkumar Gupta spoke about how the situation had improved over the last decade. “There is direct co-relation between literacy and water supply. Literacy has improved a lot in the rural areas, especially among the girls, because they don’t need to go miles away to fetch a few buckets of water.”
State finance minister Nitin Patel, who headed the water supply department in the last government, said that conditions in European countries could not be compared with those in India. “We have a big issue of dense population and at the same time being a developing country we also face pressure of providing water to drink, agriculture and for industries. Gujarat’s geographical situation is not favouring water supply and storage, but having said that we have developed state-wide drinking water supply grid.”
