World Rivers Day 2024
– PC : Freepik
World Rivers Day 2024: The celebration of the world’s waterways is known as World Rivers Day. It is celebrated on the fourth Sunday of September month. It draws attention to the numerous benefits of our rivers, works to raise public awareness, and promotes better stewardship of all rivers worldwide.
World Rivers Day history
“In 2005, the United Nations launched the Water for Life Decade to help create a greater awareness of the need to better care for our water resources. Following this, the establishment of World Rivers Day was in response to a proposal initiated by internationally renowned river advocate, Mark Angelo,” according to worldriversday.com.
Rivers are threatened in almost every nation, and the only way we can protect them in the future is if we take proactive measures. Here in this article, we have listed the schemes by the government to preserve water bodies in India
Jal Shakti Abhiyan
Jal Shakti Abhiyan -I (JSA-I) was launched in 2019 in 1592 blocks in 256 water stressed districts of the country to promote water conservation and water resource management by focusing on accelerated implementation of five targeted interventions viz. water conservation and rainwater harvesting, renovation of traditional and other water bodies, reuse of water and recharging of structures, watershed development and intensive afforestation. Besides, the special interventions included development of Block Water Conservation Plans and District Water Conservation Plans, Krishi Vigyan Kendra Melas, Urban Wastewater Reuse and 3D contour mapping of all villages.
Atal Bhujal Yojana
The goal of Atal Bhujal Yojana (Atal Jal) is to demonstrate community-led sustainable groundwater management which can be taken to scale. The major objective of the Scheme is to improve the management of groundwater resources in select water-stressed areas in identified states viz. Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
Atal Jal is targeted at sustainable groundwater management, mainly through convergence among various ongoing schemes with the active involvement of local communities and stakeholders and focus on demand side management. This will ensure that in the Scheme area, the funds allocated by the Central and State governments are spent judiciously to ensure the long-term sustainability of groundwater resources.
Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP)
The Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) has been taken up with loan assistance of the World Bank for rehabilitation and improvement of about 223 dam Projects initially in seven States (namely Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Uttarakhand).
