Odisha and IIT Roorkee sign MoU to prepare State Specific Action Plan for water management

Bhubaneswar: To ensure improved management of water resources, the Odisha government has signed an MoU with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee in Uttarakhand on Thursday.

The Department of Water Resources (DoWR) and IIT-Roorkee signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the preparation of the State Specific Action Plan (SSAP) on the water sector for Odisha.

EIC, Water Resources Bhaktaranjan Mohanty and Head of Water Resources Development & Management (WRD&M), IIT, Roorkee Prof Asish Pandey signed the agreement.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Water Resources Tukuni Sahu said, “We aim to meet the requirement of water for all. Despite getting plenty of water during the rainy season, we face water scarcity in summer. The use of technology will help us meet the water requirement of our state in the coming days.”

State Specific Action Plan will be prepared in 18 months and will be carried out in three stages. The first stage will be of 9 months during which a status report on water resources in Odisha, its availability, development and management along with a state-level workshop will be prepared. In stage II which will be of 6 months duration, an interim report will be prepared containing reports about the impact of climate change, various interventions followed with a second workshop and sensitisation of policy makers. The final report will be submitted by the end of stage III.

Principal Secretary of Water Resources, Anu Garg said the MoU will help increase water use efficiency and irrigation potential in the state. “We are managing water resources and irrigation through various major, medium and minor reservoirs, check dams, command area development (CADs) and OLIC with the support of Pani Panchayats, canal lining and also through climate resilient infrastructure development. Despite all this, we need to prepare a long-term action plan looking at the future need of water,” she added.