Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat committed to the United Nations to invest over $240 billion in India’s water sector and implement the world’s largest dam rehabilitation program as well as make efforts to raise groundwater levels. Addressing the United Nations Water Conference 2023 on Thursday, Shekhawat spoke about the ambitious programs being carried out in India towards ensuring water security, providing clean water for all and achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)-6 of sanitation. Outlined efforts.
“We are committed to investing over $240 billion in the water sector through government resources in partnership with private innovators, start-ups and water-user associations,” Shekhawat told the UN General Assembly. India is implementing two major missions to ensure universal access to sanitation and drinking water.
He said India is working on the world’s largest dam rehabilitation program to build water storage infrastructure to make measures more resilient to the effects of climate change.
Also due to the country’s unique geography, India is one of the largest users of groundwater in the world. He said that however today India is working towards increasing the ground water level and bringing demand and supply side together through rural water security schemes.
Meanwhile, Henk Ovink, Special Envoy for International Water Affairs of the Netherlands at the United Nations Water Conference and Sherpa of the UN 2023 Water Conference, said that India has big ambitions to improve its water sector and is committed to rejuvenating the country’s longest river. For this ‘Namami Gange’ mission is “Umeed ki Kiran”.
He said, “The river Ganga is one of the prestigious and important streams in the society which helps us to understand the importance of the vital resource.”
Ovink made this statement in a session on ‘Namami Gange – An Integrated and Holistic Approach towards Conservation and Rejuvenation of River Ganga and its Ecosystem’. The Water Conference formally launched a mid-term review of the work to be done in the United Nations Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation (2018-2028). This conference is being held at the United Nations Headquarters. Tajikistan and the Netherlands are hosting it.
Whatever conclusion comes out of the conference, which continues from March 22 to 24, will be included in the 2023 session of the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.
