{"id":55284,"date":"2025-09-26T20:37:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T15:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=55284"},"modified":"2025-09-27T14:41:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T09:11:25","slug":"national-water-security-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/26-09-2025\/national-water-security-initiative","title":{"rendered":"National Initiative on Water Security"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Government of India has launched the <strong>\u2018National Initiative on Water Security,<\/strong>\u2019 making water conservation a top national priority and introducing mandatory minimum spending on water-related works <strong>under MGNREGA.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Features of the Initiative<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Fund Allocation Mandates:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>\u2018Over-exploited\u2019\/\u2018Dark zone\u2019 blocks: <\/strong>65% of MGNREGA funds must be spent on water-related works (rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>\u2018Semi-critical\u2019 blocks<\/strong>: 40% of funds for water conservation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>All other blocks: <\/strong>30% minimum for such activities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Budgetary Focus<\/strong>: Out of the \u20b988,000 crore annual MGNREGA budget (2025\u201326), a fixed share is now earmarked for water security.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Groundwater Assessment Basis: <\/strong>Fund distribution and block categorisation are based on the Dynamic Ground Water Resources Assessment Report (2024), as classified by the <strong>Central Ground Water Board (CGWB).<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What Qualifies as Water Conservation Works?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Construction of check dams, farm ponds, community tanks, and percolation tanks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Desilting, renovation of traditional water bodies, groundwater recharge pits, soak wells.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Building irrigation channels, watershed management structures, afforestation and plantation works to increase water retention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Rationale<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Groundwater depletion:<\/strong> India is the world\u2019s largest user of groundwater (~25% of global extraction).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rural dependence:<\/strong> 80% of rural drinking water and nearly two-thirds of irrigation rely on groundwater.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Climate stress: <\/strong>Erratic monsoons and rising drought frequency exacerbate water scarcity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>PM\u2019s directive:<\/strong> Following the Prime Minister\u2019s instruction to earmark funds specifically for water, this step institutionalises water conservation as a national rural priority.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Significance<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/23-03-2022\/water-security-in-india\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/23-03-2022\/water-security-in-india\">Water Security<\/a>:<\/strong> Strengthens groundwater recharge and rainwater harvesting.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rural Livelihoods:<\/strong> Ensures sustainable employment + improved farm productivity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Women Empowerment:<\/strong> Rising participation in MGNREGA aligns with SDG 5.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Climate Adaptation:<\/strong> Improves resilience of rural communities against droughts and floods.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Synergy with National Missions: <\/strong>Supports Jal Jeevan Mission, Catch the Rain, Amrit Sarovar, and Doubling Farmers\u2019 Income goals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: PIB<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>In News<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Government of India has launched the \u2018National Initiative on Water Security,\u2019 making water conservation a top national priority and introducing mandatory minimum spending on water-related works under MGNREGA.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>What Qualifies as Water Conservation Works?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Construction of check dams, farm ponds, community tanks, and percolation tanks.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Desilting, renovation of traditional water bodies, groundwater recharge pits, soak wells.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/26-09-2025\/national-water-security-initiative\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":55321,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/09\/national-water-security-initiative.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55284"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55349,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55284\/revisions\/55349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}