MoU signed between DoWR,Odisha& IIT, Roorkee, for Preparation of State Specific Action Plan (SSAP) on Water Sector
Bhubaneswar : A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Department of Water Resources(DoWR), Govt of Odisha & Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), Roorkee, Uttarakhand for Preparation of State Specific Action Plan (SSAP) on Water Sector for Odisha. In the presence of Hon’ble Minister, Water Resources, Commerce & Transport Smt, Tukuni Sahu and Development Commissioner& Additional Chief Secretary,DoWR, Odisha Smt Anu Garg,IAS, this MoU has been signedbetween EIC, Water Resources Sri Bhaktaranjan Mohanty & Heads of Water Resources Development & Management (WRD& M ), IIT, Roorkee Prof.Asish Pandey, on Thursday in a programme organized in the Conference Hall of DoWR,Rajiv Bhawan, Odisha.
Speaking on the occasion, Hon’ble Minister Smt. Sahu said that, Hon’ble Chief Minister,Odisha Shri Naveen Patnaik has always emphasized on the development and better management of Water resources. Our aim is to meet the requirement of Water for all.While we are getting plenty of water during the rainy season, we are facing water scarcity after a few days. The Minister hoped that today’s signing of the MoU with use of technology will help to meet the water requirement of our State in the coming days.
The 5th Goal of National Water Mission(NWM), 2015 aims to promote basin level integrated water resource management applicable to all States. SSAP is a comprehensive policy for integrated water resources management to be developed in each State/UTS to promote a sustainable outlook on water governance. Accelerated demand for food security and industry, very large temporal and spatial variation in rainfall and climate change, change of consumption and distribution pattern with the growing economy are putting more pressure on availability of per capita use of water in our country.Further, the Water Resources situation,its development,management and availability vary considerably from State to State. So it is imperative to develop State specific action plans for water sector which give the holistic roadmap to achieve the desired goals of NWM.
The total time for preparation of SSAP will be eighteen months which will be completed in three stages. The Stage-I will be of 9 months duration in which the Status Report on Water Resources in Odisha,it’s availability, development and management along witha State level workshop will be carried out. In Stage-II of 6 months duration, Interim Report will be prepared which will contain impact of climate change, various interventions followed with a second workshopand sensitization of policy makers. The State will get Final report on SSAP by the end of Stage-III.
Speaking on the occasion, Smt. Garg, DC & ACS,DoWR said that the MoU will help in increasing our water use efficiency and irrigation potential. We are managing Water Resources and Irrigation through various Major, Medium & Minor reservoirs,Check Dams,Command area development Programmes(CADs) , OLIC with the support of Pani Panchayats, Canal lining and alsothrough climate resilient infrastructure development. Despite all this, we need to prepare a long-term action plan looking at the future need of water, said Mrs. Garg.
Dr. Chandra Shekhar Padhi, EIC(P&D) from DoWR,Odisha focused upon the requirements of Odisha in Water Sector and Prof. Pandey of WRD&M , IIT, Roorkeegave detailsabout thestrategy for preparation of action plan respectivelythrough separate PPTs. Among others Prof. Akshay Dwivedi,Dean, Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy, IIT Roorkee, Mohit P. Mohanty, Assistant Professor,WRD&Mwere present during the signing of MoU and participated in the discussion. Mr. Sudhanshu Mohan Samal, Additional Secretary, Department of Water Resources& MD,OLIC, Chief Engineer (Planning) Mr. Sagar Mohanty, all other senior officers, Engineers of the DoWR Odisha and experts from IIT Roorkee were present during the event.
