Rajasthan ranks low on drinking-water supply for villages: NITI Aayog
With only 44% of its rural habitations fully covered by drinking water supply, Rajasthan ranks low on drinking water for villages in a recent NITI Aayog report. The NITI Aayog has asked the state to improve the access rate and the quality of drinking water in rural habitations while lauding its efforts in surface water restoration and participatory irrigation. Here's more.
The NITI Aayog report, which includes a composite water management index, said there has been no improvement in water quality - in terms of contamination by arsenic and fluoride - in 2016-17 in Rajasthan compared to the previous financial year.
Rajasthan Government is working on various public-welfare water-projects, the state's Public Health Engineering and Groundwater Minister Surendra Goyal said. He said 90% of India's brackish water and 50% of fluoridated water is in Rajasthan, so providing safe water is time-consuming. "We will be spending close to Rs. 20,000cr on projects to make surface-water available to the people in rural and urban areas," he said.
NITI Aayog has appreciated Rajasthan's efforts in restoring 80% of the irrigation potential of identified water bodies, largely through community-managed ponds and tanks. Rajasthan has also improved its score on participatory irrigation and source restoration. The report said that Rajasthan has emerged as a leader in participatory irrigation with 75% of its irrigated areas having water users' associations involved in operating the system.
