Here is how Narendra Modi solved the water disaster in Gujarat

Gujarat was not too long ago designated a ‘Har Ghar Jal’ state, which signifies that each one properties within the state now have entry to recent faucet water. As a part of the ‘Jal Jeevan Mission,’ the undertaking has been accomplished in phases all through the years. According to state officers, all 91,73,378 homes within the state now have entry to faucet water.

On August 15, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the ‘Jal Jeevan Mission’ from the ramparts of Red Fort. The ‘Har Ghar Jal’ initiative is a element of the mission, which seeks to ship adequate portions of high quality water to each rural household in India by 2024.

मेरे लिए दो गुजरात हैं एक मोदीजी के मुख्यमंत्री बनने से पहले का और दूसरा बनने के बाद का!

कभी दादी – नानी की आंखें पानी न पाकर छलक जाती थीं, आज भरपूर पानी देख खुशी से छलक उठती हैं। #HarGharJal #SoSaysGSS pic.twitter.com/5EuKLLrRFM

— Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (@gssjodhpur) November 8, 2022

The marketing campaign makes an attempt to free sisters and moms from family water-fetching actions. The undertaking gives residents within the nation’s rural areas with consolation and dignity. As Gujarat’s journey is important studying for all states, right here is the account of how a drought-prone dry state turned self-sufficient due to excellent management and decision-making.

Gujarat previous to 2001

Gujarat solely possesses 6.39% of India’s land space and a pair of.28% of its water assets. Again, intra-state distributional imbalances place restrictions on this. The state skilled periodic droughts on account of its substantial coefficient of variation throughout time and placement and common annual rainfall of 80 cm.

Prior to 2001, Gujarat’s human and cow populations had been critically in danger attributable to a extreme ingesting water deficit. In order to supply ingesting water briefly, governments had been compelled to spend billions of rupees on street tankers and, in sure instances, particular water trains. The State, which had a social tradition that was sometimes peaceable and cordial, even had “water riots” due to extreme water shortages that had been made worse by inadequate administration of water assets.

Additionally, because of the water disaster, residents of Gujarat’s drought-prone Saurashtra and Kutch (Western and South Western Gujarat) moved to the state’s Central and South areas. This human migration was normally adopted by the motion of cow herds, and it led to the displacement of tons of of hundreds of individuals on financial, social, and cultural ranges.

Gujarat noticed 12 main droughts between 1980 and 2001, based on statistics from the India Meteorological Department from 2015. The common depth of the groundwater between 1975 and 1980 within the districts of Gujarat and Kutch was 30 metres. But by 2001–2002, it had dropped to 150–250 m. The groundwater degree was dropping at a tempo of 3-5 metres per 12 months. The Saurashtra area, specifically Kachchh, was on the point of turning right into a desert in round twenty years if the scenario was not rapidly addressed.

Narendra Modi turns into chief minister of Gujarat in 20001

The story of how a state like this got here to be a nationwide mannequin for managing water assets started in 2001 when Modi was appointed Chief Minister. From his experience as a social employee, Modi understood that the age-old subject in Gujarat couldn’t be resolved by typical approaches. It was essential to implement a scientific technique that made use of recent know-how, astute planning, and warranted supply in a staggered method.

Shortly after taking workplace, Modi instructed his crew to enhance current canal methods slightly than simply depend on Narmada water, and he insisted on participatory administration of ingesting water and agriculture. He broke the executive stranglehold on initiatives whereas together with NGOs and water beneficiaries from the beginning. Most critically, Modi allotted cash to construct the infrastructure wanted to distribute water whereas serving as chief minister as a result of he understood how essential it was to the social transformation he envisioned.

Birth of BISAG

The Gujarat authorities created the state-level Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG) to assist within the provide of companies and options for the deployment of map-based GeoSpatial Information Systems. The BISAG, a specialised institute that used satellite tv for pc remote-sensing applied sciences and GIS-based maps to assist expedite the Gujarat infrastructure growth mannequin, was based in 2003 on account of the scientific perspective, with an emphasis on using know-how. When the idea was mastered, it was utilized to the water subject.

The information on current water our bodies, dams, ponds, rivers, and canals in Gujarat state had been compiled utilizing high-resolution Indian Remote Sensing satellite tv for pc information. A system was developed to visualise the information together with different essential info, such because the street and rail community, administrative boundaries, slope, sort of soil, land use, geology, landform, forest particulars, sanctuary and nationwide park, and so on., after the creation of the present information. A GIS-based platform was developed utilizing the information to visualise the datasets.

Satellite photos allowed for a greater understanding of the panorama. By overlaying numerous civilian use datasets, comparable to administrative particulars, watershed and forest space particulars, form of land and survey quantity particulars of landholdings, the information was additional refined and essential info was obtained. Finally, this information was used at floor degree to execute initiatives.

Micro-level examine dams

Check dams are a standard approach of replenishing groundwater, notably in dry areas. Gujarat had about 6,000 such examine dams when Modi turned CM in 2002. One of the numerous the explanation why this extremely efficient technique of conserving and utilizing water wasn’t expanded was a lack of awareness about the place to construct the dams to be more practical, in addition to native political priorities. Space know-how based mostly on BISAG arrived to assist.

Check dam. (Image: Telangana Today)

Due to this, the full variety of examine dams elevated from slightly below 6,000 to over 100,000 in only some years, reaching 166,062 by mid-2016 with a storage capability of greater than 28,408 million cubic toes (mcf). Check dams had been put in place, which significantly boosted the water provide.

Macro-level initiatives

At the macro degree, three important initiatives remodeled the panorama of Gujarat, notably within the Saurashtra, Kachchh, and North Gujarat areas. The Narmada Main Canal, the Sujalam Sufalam Yojana, and the SAUNI Yojana are the three initiatives. Satellite-based planning and execution had been additionally used within the deployment of those three main initiatives.

The first one is the Narmada Main Canal. The Narmada canal is the world’s longest irrigation canal, reaching 458 kilometres in size and transporting 40,000 cusecs of water. The system of department canals, sub-canals, and distributaries, furthermore, is what has made the Narmada canal such a transformational enterprise. PM Modi launched the Kachchh department canal from this Narmada Main canal, which helps present water to essentially the most distant components of Kachchh.

Narmada canal. (Wikimedia Commons)

Secondly, there’s the Sujalam Sufalam Yojana. Although it additionally covers districts from different areas, the primary aim of this initiative is to irrigate the areas of North Gujarat. Due to the deepening of lakes, check-dams, rivers, and reservoirs, which began in 2018 after a weak monsoon, the state’s water storage capability has elevated by 23,000 lakh cubic toes to this point. It is a 332 km canal community that aids in bringing floodwaters from the Narmada and different rivers to the parched space of North Gujarat and provides irrigation to round 2.2 million hectares of arable land.

Image: News18

The solely area nonetheless in want of an answer was the Saurashtra area, because the Narmada Main Canal had already supplied water to the Kachchh area and Sujalam Sufalam had resolved the water subject in North Gujarat. The SAUNI Yojana (Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation Yojana), which implies actually “reincarnation of the Narmada River in the region,” was thus launched. In order to transmit the additional Narmada waters to greater than 115 foremost reservoirs and irrigate greater than 1 million acres of land, a 1,126-km community of four-link pipes was designed and constructed.

Image: News18

The organisational construction of water useful resource administration was additionally altered by Narendra Modi, who changed the umbrella organisation with purposeful divisions. The Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board retained duty for establishing and regulating water provide and sewerage methods. 

In order to present village-level establishments the competence to handle and preserve their very own water provide infrastructure, the Water and Sanitation Management Organization (WASMO) was based. Sardar Sarovar Nigam Limited was created as an impartial organisation chargeable for finishing the undertaking. To transport Narmada waters, Gujarat Water Infrastructure Limited was charged with creating bulk water pipe networks.

The work completed by the Gujarat state authorities below Modi gave the state a brand new life, which may have was a desert if the difficulty of shortage of water was not addressed. PM Narendra Modi can undoubtedly take credit score for creating an efficient water administration coverage because the chief minister of Gujarat.