Jalanidhi could boost drought fight. Will Bommai include in Budget?

In a bid to turn the fortunes of drought-prone areas, the Watershed Development Department has pitched a new scheme of rainwater harvesting in dry places.

The department has asked Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to consider a new scheme called Jalanidhi in the upcoming 2023-24 Budget.

The Jalanidhi programme will take up rainwater harvesting programmes in about three lakh hectares of drought-prone regions in the state, covering 100 taluks. The programme involves construction of small tanks, shallow wells and kalyanis for water sustainability.

Watershed is a rainfed area, which can be understood as a sub-section of a river basin, from where the water flows intro a lake or a stream.

Three-fifths of Karnataka is already drought-prone. The state has suffered 15 drought years over the last two decades; groundwater is rapidly depleting and water demand is projected to increase significantly in the years to come.

The Jalanidhi programme is envisaged to help increase groundwater level and ensure availability of water during summer, Commissioner for Watershed Development MV Venkatesh said.

The department is already implementing rainwater harvesting in 57 taluks under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) 2.0.

Hundred taluks are covered under Watershed Development for Drought-proofing (WDDP) and 20 taluks in Rejuvenating Watershed for Agriculture Resilience through Innovative Development (REWARD) programme.

However, these programmes are being implemented in clusters, unable to cover all the drought-prone areas. Through the new scheme, the department hopes to extend the intervention to the entire state, according to the official. In addition, while these are centrally-sponsored schemes, Jalanidhi has been proposed to be a state-funded scheme.

Last year, the state government created 6,800 various water harvesting structures and harvested about 40 tmc feet of water under PMKSY. Apart from this, it also built 1,000 Amrit Sarovars as part of the Centre's Amrit Sarovar Mission, the official added.

The only way to increase soil moisture content and to ensure water security for life and livelihoods is through rainwater harvesting, water activist S Vishwanath said. However, watershed programmes are not new to Karnataka and the government must implement from lessons learned in the past, he stressed.

If sanctioned in the budget, the Jalanidhi programme will be implemented in coordination with the Centre of Excellence on Watershed.