Uttar Pradesh has received the National Water Award for its excellent work in the field of water management and conservation. UP has been ranked second in the country in the best states category for its notable work in the field of water conservation and management, besides providing tap connections to all households in rural areas.
President Draupadi Murmu honored Uttar Pradesh for this achievement at the fifth National Water Award program organized at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. On behalf of UP, Namami Gange and Rural Water Supply Department Additional Chief Secretary Anurag Srivastava and Housing Commissioner Dr Balkar Singh received the award from the President. In the best state category, Odisha ranked first, while Gujarat and Puducherry jointly ranked third.
On this occasion, President Murmu praised the work done in the campaign to provide safe drinking water to every household and the innovative experiments carried out for water conservation. During the programme, Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil also praised the work done by UP in providing tap connections to all households in Bundelkhand and Vindhya region and towards water conservation.
He received an award for this achievement.
Along with water conservation and management, Uttar Pradesh created a record of supplying tap water to all houses in 17900 villages of the state in the fastest time in 2023. While Director Groundwater and Secretary Namami Gange in 2023 , Dr. Balkar Singh carried out many innovative experiments for water conservation and management. In addition to water management, farmers also benefited from irrigation. To improve the irrigation system in the state, a total of more than 6,000 check dams and 1,000 ponds were built. In addition to this, rainwater harvesting infrastructure was built in 31,360 government buildings for water conservation. Between 2022 and 2023, 5 blocks were removed from the critical and overexploited category. In addition, the average groundwater level of 34 cities improved. In the state, 27,368 traditional water bodies were revitalized. 17279 Amrit Sarovars were built.
The tap connection reached more than 2 million rural families
Let us inform that under Jal Jeevan’s Har Ghar Jal Yojana Mission, Uttar Pradesh has provided tap connections to 2 crore 27 lakh 77 thousand 194 rural families till October 22, 2024, thus providing pure drinking water to 13, 66 crore villagers. Recently, the State Sanitation and Drinking Water Mission was also honored with the Best Exhibition Award at the International Fair.
