Water Resources Secretary reviews sustainability with state officials

New Delhi, March 26 (IANS) Strategies for sustainable development of water resources took centrestage as V.L. Kantha Rao, Secretary, Department of Water Resources, chaired a Regional State Water Secretaries Conference in Telangana, an official said on Thursday.

At the meeting, held at Dr MCR HRD Institute of Telangana, Rao, who heads Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation (DoWR, RD & GR), Ministry of Jal Shakti, reaffirmed the department's commitment to providing comprehensive support for the planning, development, and management of water resources projects/schemes across the country, said a statement.

The meeting was attended by senior officers from the Water Resources Departments of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Lakshadweep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands together at a single platform to discuss wide array of matters pertaining to the water sector.

Officials of DoWR, RD&GR, New Delhi and 15 heads of major organisations of the department also participated in the daylong conference.

Key objectives of the conference encompassed review of the implementation of ongoing schemes of the department in the participating states/UTs; works done by the organisations of the Department in these states, understanding concerns of the states/UTs with respect to ongoing schemes/projects and inter-state matters; and detailed deliberations on these aspects to further strengthen thrust areas of Centre-state co-ordination and partnerships, said the statement.

The Secretary reiterated the significance of the meeting in formulating and executing integrated strategies for sustainable and effective development of water resources in the region.

He reaffirmed the department's commitment to providing comprehensive support for the planning, development, and management of water resources projects/schemes across the country.

During the conference, state officials illustrated the scheme implementation status, expectations from the Government of India and related bottlenecks in respective states/UTs in the field of water resources.

The Secretary, DoWR, RD and GR underpinned the need for timely completion of ongoing projects and to reduce the gaps in Centre-state coordination to ensure time-bound progress of priority works.

He called upon the States/UTs to participate in revision and reformation of schemes of DoWR, RD & GR for next FC cycle.

Apart from the regular ongoing schemes, discussions also took place on Flood forecasting activities and adoption of advisories issued by the DoWR, RD & GR by the States/UTs on Sediment Management, Salinity Ingress in Coastal areas, implementation of the provisions of Dam Safety Act, Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari among others, said the statement.

Participating states/UTs were requested to streamline implementation of these critical advisories on priority basis.

--IANS

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