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Maharashtra: State water policy focuses on agri productivity

Save Water: Policy lays emphasis on making rain water harvesting mandatory

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Maharashtra government after 16 years has formulated a comprehensive water policy for the state which focuses on increasing water and agricultural productivity, reducing disparity in water supply criteria applied for urban and rural areas, providing water through pipelines from reservoirs and bringing water guzzling crops like sugarcane and banana under micro-irrigation. The policy lays emphasis on making rainwater harvesting mandatory in urban areas and for new colonies, groundwater planning will be devised.

State water resources secretary Rajendra Pawar told DNA,''The policy has been drafted after taking into account couple of challenges such as imbalance between rising water demand and supply, uncertainty over water availability, limitation on the use of available water, rapidly deteriorating water quality, burgeoning encroachments in river zones and on nullah and falling groundwater level.''

The policy envisages participation of people at large in the water supply, planning of cleanliness amenities and its management in urban and rural areas. As far as management of water for agriculture use is concerned, the policy has proposed infrastructure will be developed to promote micro irrigation and all efforts will be made to remove existing lacunae in canal system. The government will conduct audit of water projects.

Further, the policy has set an ambitious target of zero effluent especially for the water used by industry. It will be binding on industrial units using one million cubic meter of water annually to prepare water report. Agro based industries will be promoted especially in the region with less water availability.

Against the backdrop of recent floods in Sangli, Satara and Kolhapur, the policy has envisaged formulation of a scheme for the preparation of flood inundation maps and flood management. For flood forecast, the government proposes to develop decision support system and also SMS based warning system in flood zones.

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