First Ever Census on Water Bodies in India
Recently, for the first time in the history of the country, the Ministry of Jal Shakti has conducted the first-ever census of water bodies.
The census provides a comprehensive inventory of India’s water resources, including natural and man-made water sources such as ponds, tanks, lakes, etc., as well as collecting data on encroachments on water sources.
The census also highlighted disparities between rural and urban areas and varying levels of encroachment, and brought forth important information on the country’s water resources.
The census was launched under the centrally sponsored scheme “Irrigation Census” in line with the 6th Minor Irrigation Census in order to create a comprehensive national database of all water sources.
It includes all those water bodies located in rural as well as urban areas which are in use or not in use.
All types of uses of water sources such as irrigation, industry, fisheries, domestic/drinking water, recreational, religious, groundwater recharge, etc. have also been taken into account in the calculation.
Key findings of the census –
- 24,24,540 water bodies have been enumerated in the country, of which 97.1% (23,55,055) are in rural areas and only 2.9% (69,485) are in urban areas.
- The top 5 states in terms of number of water bodies are West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Assam which account for about 63% of the total water bodies in the country.
- The top 5 states in terms of number of water bodies in urban areas are West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura while the top 5 states in rural areas are West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Assam.
- 5 percent of water bodies are ponds, followed by tanks (15.7%), reservoirs (12.1%), water conservation schemes/percolation tanks/check dams (9.3%), lakes (0.9%) and others (2.5%).
- 2% of water bodies are owned by private entities while 44.8% of water bodies are owned by the public sector.
- Out of all publicly owned water bodies, the maximum numbers of water bodies are owned by Panchayats, followed by State Irrigation/State Water Resources Departments.
- Among all privately owned water bodies, maximum water sources are with individual ownership/farmers, groups of people and other private entities.
Source – PIB
