Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan's call to crank up 'catch the rain' drive

Saifabad: Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan on Friday called upon people to take up rain water harvesting activities as a movement.

"Though our country is receiving copious rains, we are lagging behind in conserving rain water, thus staring at a major water crisis," she said.

The Governor was addressing vice-chancellors of different universities of Telangana and Puducherry and the Indian Red Cross Society functionaries through a video conference on the theme "Catch the rain, where it falls, when it falls from Raj Bhavan, here. Dr Tamilisai stated that though the country accounts for 18 per cent of the world's population and 20 per cent of livestock, it has only four per cent of the water resources.

"Most rainwater is going unused. It is high time that we create rainwater harvesting structures to conserve and use it. We must reduce the indiscriminate and over-exploitation of precious ground water. We must accelerate the ground water recharge. We need to achieve the water use efficiency by 20 per cent. Water is critical for development," she added.

The Governor expressed concern that 256 out of 700 districts have been identified as 'critical' or 'over exploited ground water levels'. "It is paradoxical that we witness floods due to plenty of rains, on the other hand we experience water scarcity. This is just a result of our failure to harvest rainwater in an effective manner and on a massive scale," she asserted.Furthermore, she urged all stakeholders to proactively promote the "catch the rain" campaign having a tagline of "where it falls, when it falls," launched as part of the National Water Mission.

"Our efforts for the country's growth and prosperity, livelihoods of people, sustainable development for future generations all depend upon our success in effective rain water harvesting and avoiding the over-exploitation of the ground water," she said.

Dr Tamilisai, who is also the Chancellor of State universities, directed the VCs to transform the university campuses as 'green and water-rich campuses.

She suggested to them to create rain water harvesting facilities like check dams, pits, ponds, re-cycling of waste water, roof-top water harvesting structures.

She called upon the IRC functionaries to involve volunteers to give the catch the rain initiative a momentum at the grassroots level. Mission director G Ashok Kumar urged VCs to transform their universities in Telangana and Puducherry as model campuses in rainwater harvesting. Secretary to Governor K Surendra Mohan explained the initiatives implemented in Raj Bhavan to harvest rainwater and generate solar power, and other eco-friendly initiatives.