The report highlighted key government initiatives in water sector, challenges faced by them and recommendations to make them effective.
Key Highlights of Report
- Poor Fund Utilization: Only 60% of budget allocated for 2024-25 was used till end of three quarters.
- Challenges in Water Sector: Multiplication in magnitude of reduction of per capital availability of water, deterioration in quality, overexploitation of ground water resources and relatively lower efficiency of the facilities for water utilization.
- Recommendation: These challenges necessitate revision of National Water Policy and its implementation.
- Namami Gange Mission-II: Constitute a committee comprising MPs/MLAs from districts for better formulation, implementation and monitoring of work.
- Dam Safety: Implementation of Dam Safety Act is affected due to personnel shortage in State Committees on Dam Safety (SCDSs) and State Dam Safety Organizations (SDSOs).
- Recommendation: Include a local public representative in bodies/organizations under National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA).
- Rainwater Harvesting: No dedicated financial support to States/UTs from National Water Mission (NWM).
- Flood Management and Border Areas Programme (FMBAP): Underutilization of allocated fund hampers implementation and cross-border river issue resulting in recurring floods.
- Recommendation: Ministry of Jal Shakti and Ministry of External Affairs should undertake the Cross-Border Flooding Management as an independent initiative.