State will focus on watershed schemes in tanker-fed villages

aurangabad: describing the water scarcity situation in marathwada this year as more severe than in 1972, divisional commissioner v. ramani on wednesday announced plans to streamline all the watershed development schemes by concentrating on 353 tanker-fed villages. inaugurating a workshop of local ngos for the orientation of gsd (ground-water survey and development) act, organised by gsd agency (gsda) and unicef, mr.ramani said that with the changing times, the gsda should act as a ground-water survey and conservation agency (gsca). instead of introducing highly technical devices, there was a need to use reverse technology by studying traditional methods, which come at a low cost and also pave the way for people's participation, he said. there were 353 villages in the division which remained tankerfed for the last five years, he said adding that there was an urgent need to implement the watershed development programme in these villages. moreover, the gsda should declare the over-exploited watersheds in the division, he continued. mr ramani regretting that the watershed development work had been compartmentalised and broken into various departments. in the overall planning, the agriculture department in watershed development schemes played no role for the gsda, social forestry and even the revenue department. when the central government thrust the drought prone area programme (dpap) on the ngo's in the state, the government departments did not react satisfactorily on its implementation, as if it was not their responsibility, he said. mr ramani felt that there was a strong need for co-ordination between various government agencies and non-governmental organisations. he stressed the need to form a co-ordinating group of experts from the government department, ngo's and the public to fight against the threat of severe water scarcity in the region. after lot of capital expenditure in watershed, neither proper evaluation of the schemes was done nor the responsibility of maintenance was given to villagers, he said. district collector v. radha, who had initiated a mass movement of well recharging in the district by motivating village leaders among others, pointed out that the public water source in the village should be made public. this, she said, could be done by the water budget of the village. the relevant low cost technology will help the masses in drought proofing, she said. zilla parishad chief executive officer vikaschandra rastogi stressed the need to strengthen public water sources on a priority basis in the implementation of high cost watershed development programme. he expressed the need to streamline all water related schemes.