India is blessed with huge amount of rainfall, however we are not able to use it to recharge our ground water aquifers and most of the rainfall that occurs in monsoon flows to the sea and it cannot be used by us. People of Kasganj are cleaning the river bed to rejuvenate the river as shown in the photo. The effort to dig up ponds is very welcome because the water accumulated in the ponds during the rainfall gets percolated and recharges the ground water and then it is taken out through bore wells for irrigation. However digging of the rivers does not have the same impact because rivers enable that water to flow from the tributary into the main stream. So rivers are methods of taking water away from the area whereas ponds are a method to hold the water within the area.
Comments:
This is good step by the Government, similar rejuvenation of water bodies to recharge the ground water in the catchment of all the tributaries of all the rivers in the country should be undertaken urgently.
