New Delhi: The Union government is increasingly turning to advanced technology to strengthen water conservation and management, with the Ministry of Jal Shakti rolling out a series of initiatives to improve efficiency, transparency and sustainability, MoS Raj Bhushan Choudhary had told the Rajya Sabha.
Though water is primarily a state subject, the Centre provides crucial technical and policy support. A key example is the Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain campaign, under which water bodies are being geo-tagged and mapped through GIS and remote sensing. So far, 639 districts have drawn up scientific conservation plans. For groundwater, the India-Groundwater Resource Estimation System has been developed, while over 5,200 digital recorders with telemetry now provide real-time data. Satellite inputs from NASA’s GRACE mission and the upcoming NISAR satellite will further strengthen monitoring.
On surface water, the National Hydrology Project has installed more than 23,000 real-time systems, while first nationwide Census of Water Bodies counted 24.24 lakh structures.