The President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the Second India Water Forum 2013 on October 28 at a function at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi. The President said that India’s agriculture is a big demand centre for water.
Water management in this sector is therefore crucial for overall sustainability of water resources in the country. The 3 R strategy of reduce, recycle and reuse has to find application in our farmlands, he added.
He stated that our irrigation system has to encourage judicious use of water and efforts at recycling and reuse of wastewater have to be doubled. He said that rainwater harvesting has to be popularised by dovetailing existing rural development schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme.
Our initiatives at integrated watershed development have to aim at increasing the soil moisture, reducing the sediment yield and improving water productivity, he said.