Kolkata, Feb. 19 -- State Water Resources Investigation and Development minister Manas Bhunia said on Wednesday that the successful promotion of Water Users Association (WUA) by the state government has been acknowledged by the entire country at the first All India Annual State
Ministers Conference on Water held in Bhopal.
The WUAs are promoted by the state Water Resources Investigation & Development (WRI&D) department under World Bank supported West Bengal Accelerated Development of Minor Irrigation Project (WBADMIP) for ensuring better operation and maintenance of irrigation structures.
"Our department comes up with the minor irrigation infrastructure in the form of check dam, tubewell etc and hand over the command area to be served by such infrastructure to the farmers organising them in the form of WUA. The WUAs distribute water, resolve conflicts, if any, collect water charges for the water services provided to its beneficiaries on agriculture, horticulture & fishery purposes," said Bhunia.
As many as 3368 WUAs have been formed and strengthened under WBADMIP project as of now and the process is a continuous one. The size varies across the agro climatic regions with 40-50 average members. Minimum 15 members in the hills to maximum 120 members in the Coastal Saline zone. During the question answer session at the state Assembly Bhunia said that his department has rejuvenated 600 km of creek in the Sunderbans area for rainwater harvesting to facilitate cultivation in those blocks that are affected by the ingress of saline water of rivers.
After draining out the saline water , water from the creek is channelised for agriculture. In reply to a query from Samir Kumar Jana who is an MLA from Patharpratima, the minister said that his department has developed infrastructure for irrigation in 264 new projects covering 6875 hectares of land in North 24-Parganas and South 24-Parganas till December 2024.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.