WORLD NEWS | World inspired by India’s steps in water conservation, management: Union Minister Shekhawat

WASHINGTON, March 1 (PTI) India has emerged as a leading nation in comprehensive and integrated water resources management, and the world, especially developing countries, is inspired by this and is looking to New Delhi for help in solving these problems, Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shea Kawat said.

“They (the international community) were surprised to see (the steps India has taken in terms of water conservation and resource management),” Union Jal Shakti Minister Shekhawat said in an interview with PTI.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Jodhpur attended the World Water Week held by the World Bank in person after three years, and more than 400 experts on water issues from around the world attended.

In his keynote speech at the event, the minister outlined some of the key steps India has taken in this area over the past few years.

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In a bilateral meeting, Ghana’s Minister of Health and Water Resources, Cecilia Abnea Dapaah, sought India’s help in addressing the challenges they face in water-related issues.

“India inspires us all,” Shekhawat quoted Dapaah as saying, adding that he had received similar feedback from other delegates and participants in Monday’s meeting.

On Tuesday, the minister traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee, to experience first-hand the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) ongoing dam safety management assessment and water integration work, inspired by the projects in West Bengal and Jharkhand. Damodar Valley Corporation is a similar project.

Shekawat said that after the recent passage of the Dam Safety Act, the Indian government has seriously carried out dam safety work. He added that over the past five years, India, in partnership with the World Bank, has taken major successful steps in dam safety, management and maintenance, making it the world’s largest rehabilitation and improvement program involving 700 dams.

Shekhawat said India has taken the lead in this area and is not far behind. He noted that this is on par with best practice in flood forecasting around the world.

Given the global challenges facing water resources management, Shekhawat said there is a need for a coherent, holistic and integrated approach.

Speaking at the meeting here, the minister said officials agreed that the World Bank and India should jointly advocate for water-related issues.

Responding to a question, Shekhawat said steps were being taken to ensure that water supply would not pose a challenge to India’s path to becoming a developed country by 2047, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision.

India, which aims to become a $5 or $10 trillion economy and a developed country by 2047, must work hard to ensure necessary and sufficient water supply. “From now on, we have started to work in this direction,” Shekhwat said. PTI LKJ

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)