What the new Jal Shakti Mantralaya should focus on

Just like the country did in the Swachh Bharat Mission, India could lay out a template for other countries on securing national water security by integrating fragmented institutions and making water security everyone’s business.

Water is at the top of the development agenda of the new government, as emphasised by the prime minister at Niti Aayog’s governing council meeting last week. Encouraging the participating chief ministers to give top priority to the subject of water in all its different avatars, especially conservation, the prime minister emphasised that the first concrete step taken by the central government towards a holistic and integrated perspective on water has been the constitution of the new Jal Shakti Mantralaya. [Readmore]

Govt forms ‘Jal Shakti’ Ministry by merging Water Resources and Drinking Water Ministries

A new ‘Jal Shakti’ Ministry, in which the erstwhile ministries of Water Resources and Drinking Water and Sanitation will be merged, has been formed with Gajendra Singh Shekhawat at its helm.

Shekhawat took charge of the ministry on Friday, a day after he was sworn in as minister. During the election campaign, Modi had promised to form an integrated ministry dealing with water issues.

“All the water related works will be merged under one ministry,” Shekhawat said after taking the charge.

The ambit of the Ministry will encompass issues ranging from international and inter-states water disputes, the Namami Gange project, the flagship initiative to clean the Ganges, its tributaries and sub-tributaries and provide clean drinking water.  [Readmore]

Many questions as Bhutan plans big dam with reservoir

As Bhutan’s new prime minister prioritises the Sankosh dam, it highlights many questions about Bhutan’s pursuit of hydropower

In his first major interview to the Indian media, Prime Minister of Bhutan Lotay Tshering stated that his priority for India-Bhutan relations was to build Bhutan’s first reservoir-based dam, the Sankosh project. Bhutan has long been an outlier in the region given its pursuit of development underpinned by the production and export of electricity entirely through run-of-the-river hydroelectricity, which account for the largest share of its economy. While these projects have an impact on the ecosystem, with large amounts of water displaced from riverbeds through concrete tunnels in particular, they are less intrusive than reservoir-based projects that drown land. [Readmore]