Posted: Updated – 09:24 PM, Wednesday – November 2
Speaking at the India Water Week 2022 at the India Expo Centre in New Delhi on Wednesday, Rawat delivered a keynote speech entitled “Preventing Water Wars from a Global and Indian Perspective”, where he stressed the need to control groundwater extraction. Speaking at the India Water Week 2022 at the India Expo Centre in New Delhi on Wednesday, Rawat delivered a keynote speech entitled “Preventing Water Wars from a Global and Indian Perspective”, where he stressed the need to control groundwater extraction.
Hyderabad: Alok Rawat, former minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Renewal, said fair interstate and intrastate river water agreements are needed to resolve disputes over water sharing among states.
In his keynote speech on “Preventing Water Wars from a Global and Indian Perspective” at India Water Week 2022 at the India Expo Centre in New Delhi on Wednesday, Rawat highlighted the need to control groundwater extraction.
Chetan Pandit, a former member of the Central Water Commission (CWC), said the emphasis on water sharing in rivers should shift from transboundary water transfer to priority requirements within the basin. He said the large amount of water in the Krishna Basin was drained out of the basin by the indivisible state of Andhra Pradesh from which it was allocated, which was one of the main reasons for the division of the state and the formation of Telangana.
Pandit said that inter-basin transfers that do not address needs within the basin will lead to disputes between areas based on prescriptive and riparian rights.
In another session, Telangana Chief Irrigation Engineer V Mohan Kumar gave a slide presentation on “Demand and Supply Side Management Strategies”.
He presented the various initiatives of the Telangana government in Mission Kakatiya, Rythu Bandhu, use of technology, priority projects, modernization and redesign of projects and groundwater management, Haritha Haram, state-level Integrated Water Resources Planning and Management Committee, and piped irrigation to Achieve 125 million acres of irrigation potential in the shortest time possible.
