Prime Minister Modi launches ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain’ campaign

PM Modi on March 22, 2021, launched the ‘Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain’ campaign at 12. 30 pm via video conferencing. The campaign was launched on World Water Day which is also celebrated on March 22.

According to Prime Ministers’ Office, the Jal Shakti campaign will take place across India, in both the rural and the urban areas. The theme of the new campaign will be ‘Catch the rain, where it falls when it falls.’

Apart from launching the campaign, Prime Minister Modi also witnessed the signing of MoU between the Union Minister of Jal Shakti and Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in order to implement the Ken Betwa Link Project. It will be the National Perspective Plan’s first project for the interlinking of rivers.

Launching Catch the Rain movement on #WorldWaterDay. https://t.co/8QSbNBq6ln

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 22, 2021

Jal Shakti Abhiyan: Catch the Rain Campaign

• The Catch the Rain Campaign will be implemented from March 22 to November 30 during the pre-monsoon and the monsoon period in the country.

• The campaign will be launched as a Jan Andolan for taking the idea of water conservation and preservation at the grassroot level through the people’s participation.

• The campaign aims at nudging all the stakeholders to create rainwater harvesting structures suitable to the subsoil strata and the climatic conditions and for ensuring proper storage of rainwater.

Ken Betwa Link Project:

• The signed Memorandum of Understanding will begin inter-state cooperation for implementing the vision of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee to take water from the areas that have water in abundance to water-deficit and drought-prone areas, through the interlinking of rivers.

• It will involve the transfer of water from the Ken to the Betwa river through the construction of Daudhan Dam and a canal linking the two rivers, Kotha Barrage, the Lower Orr Project, and the Bina Complex Multipurpose Project.

• The project will provide the drinking water supply to about 62 lakh people, annual irrigation to 10.62 lakh hectare, and will generate 103 megawatts of hydropower.

Significance of the project:

The project will be significant to the water-starved region of Bundelkhand especially to the districts of Tikamgarh, Panna, Chhatarpur, Damoh, Sagar, Vidisha, Datia, Shivpuri, and Raisen of MP and Mahoba, Banda, Jhansi, and Lalitpur of UP.

The project will also pave the way for more interlinking of the river projects for ensuring that scarcity of water does not become an inhibitor to the country’s development.

World Water Day:

It is an annual UN observance day that highlights the significance of freshwater. World Water Day is celebrated on March 22 and is used to advocate for the sustainable development of freshwater resources.

The theme of World Water Day focuses on the topics such as sanitation and hygiene and clean water. The UN World Water Development Report is also released every year around this day.