They will also help generate 34 million kilo-watts of hydropower
The implementation of the inter-linking of rivers projects under the National Perspective Plan will give benefits of 25 million hectares of irrigation from surface waters and 10 million ha by increased use of groundwaters, Bishweswar Tudu, Union minister of state for Jal Shakti (water resources), told the Lok Sabha.
This is apart from the generation of 34 million kilo-watts of hydropower and other benefits of flood control, navigation, augmentation of water supply, fisheries, salinity, pollution control and employment generation, Tudu noted.
The Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP), inter alia, envisages providing annual irrigation to an area of 1.06 million ha (811,000 ha in Madhya Pradesh and 251,000 ha in Uttar Pradesh), the minister shared.
It will provide 194 million cubic metres of water for enroute drinking water supply to a population of 6.2 million (4.1 million in Madhya Pradesh and 2.1 million in Uttar Pradesh) and will have an installed power generation capacity of 103 megawatts (MW), Tudu said.
As on December 5, 2022, out of 1.7 million rural habitations in the country, 1.3 million (77 per cent) have the provision of potable drinking water, with more than 40 litres per capita per day (lpcd), 364,000 (21.5 per cent) rural habitations with less than 40 lpcd with sources at a reasonable distance and 26,000 (1.5 per cent) rural habitations are reported to have water quality issues in drinking water sources, Prahlad Singh Patel, Union minister of state for Jal Shakti told the Lok Sabha.
The summer monsoon precipitation (June-September) over India declined by around 6 per cent from 1951-2015, with notable decrease over the Indo-Gangetic Plains and the Western Ghats, Jitendra Singh, Union minister of state (independent charge) for science and technology and earth sciences, told the Rajya Sabha.
He was citing the report Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region by the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
The Hindu Kush Himalayas experienced a temperature rise of about 1.3°C during 1951–2014. Several areas of HKH experienced a declining trend in snowfall and also retreat of glaciers in recent decades.
In contrast, the high-elevation Karakoram Himalayas have experienced higher winter snowfall that shielded the region from glacier shrinkage. This report also highlighted projected change in the rainfall pattern over the Indian region in coming years, Singh added.
There are a total of 4,578 highly polluting industrial units in the country, according to the information provided by state pollution control boards and pollution control committees, Bhupender Yadav, Union minister for environment, forest and climate change told the Rajya Sabha.
There were 29,675 forest fire incidents in India from November 2021 to June 2022, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Union minister of state for environment, forest and climate change, told the Rajya Sabha.
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