New Initiatives of NWM

1. State Specific Action Plan (SSAP) –

1. State Specific Action Plan (SSAP) – National Water Mission envisaged developing State Specific Action Plans for Water Sector covering Irrigation, Industry, domestic and waste water of a State/UT. The State specific Action Plans for water sector would essentially consist of:

(a) Present situation of water resources development and management, water governance, Institutional arrangements, water related policies, cross-boundary issues, agreements etc. This would constitute the Status Report on the State/Union Territory. The document should also define problems/issues related to all the aspects of water resources specific to the State.

(b) Identifying a set of probable solutions to address the key issues/problem areas giving pros and cons of the solutions.

(c) Preparation of detailed Action Plan for each of the Strategy/activity identified in the NWM to be implemented by the State/Union Territory.

NWM shall be providing financial assistance of Rs. 50 Lakh to major states and Rs. 30 Lakh to small states/UTs as a grant for formulation of SSAPs for water sector. NERIWALM shall act as the Nodal Agency to get the State Specific action plan for water sector for twelve states in first phase – Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Odisha, Uttarakhand, and Chhattisgarh. Subsequently a MoU has been signed between NERIWALM, Tezpur and NWM.

2. Base Line Studies for Improving Water Use Efficiency (WUE) in Irrigation Sector:

Baseline studies are being carried out to analyse the current situation of irrigation projects at its initial stage. It envisages the beginning of a project to establish the current status before a project proposal is formulated. The Food and Agricultural Organization defines a baseline study as “a descriptive cross-sectional survey that mostly provides quantitative information on the current status of a particular situation on whatever study topic in a given scenario which aims at quantifying the distribution of certain variables at one point in time”. Five Major-Medium Irrigation Projects (Pahumara in Assam, Loktak in Manipur by NEERIWALM- Tezpur, Rallapadu in Andhra Pradesh, Peddavagu in Telangana by WALAMTARI-Hyderabad and Arunavati in Maharashtra by WALMI- Aurangabad in Phase-I have been undertaken. Sixteen Baseline studies for Irrigation Projects under Phase-II have also been approved in States of Assam, Maharashtra, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in association with NERIWALM-Tezpur, WALAMTARI-Hyderabad and WALMI-Aurangabad.