Conserve water resources now else would be too late: Baba Sewa Singh

Kapurthala, March 22, 2022: Recalling the message of Gurus and expressing the dire need of taking effective measures to address the critical threat of ground water overexploitation Padam Shri Awardee Sewa Singh said that if current trend of using water continues, about 60 percent of all aquifers in India will be in a critical condition in the next 15-20 years. Further, it’s easier to protect water resource now than to restore or recreate “later” which may be too late. We have to conserve more water and make efforts not to waste it. It is time to start implementing strategies that have demonstrated success in conservation and purification of water. 

These were the views expressed by him while speaking at the occasion of world water day celebration held at Science City.
Giving introductory remarks at the occasion, Dr. Neelima Jerath, Director General, Science City said that World Water Day is celebrated to raise awareness on the importance of  water and action required to tackle the global water crisis. The theme for this year celebration was “ Ground water: making the invisible visible”.   The rapid increase in population has resulted in increasing water needs to meet the domestic, agricultural, industrial and power generation demands. Increasing water pollution due to rapid urbanization, large scale industrialization and use of fertilizers and pesticides for increased agricultural production is causing water quality deterioration in both surface and groundwater and is affecting the net availability of fresh water for consumptive uses. Further, increase in the number of tube wells in Punjab is resulting in the depletion of ground water levels @ 23-50 cm per year in the entire fresh water belt.  According to Directorate of Water Resources, Punjab and Central Ground Water Board, Govt. of India out of 137 blocks, 105 blocks are over-exploited, 4 are critical  and 3 are semi- critical  zone, she added.
Dr. Rajesh Grover, Director Science City present at the occasion appealed to the students to work with local watershed conservation organizations to develop a watershed plan and start thinking over innovative ways that could help to protect and restore local streams, rivers, lakes & wetlands.
Slogan Writing and Water Audit Competitions on theme “Water Conservation” were also organized for school students at this occasion. The results of which were as below:
Slogan Writing : Manreet Kaur from Cambridge School Jalandhar   achieved first prize, Simran Kaur  from DAV Model High  School, Kapurthala stood second and Garima from Anand Public Senior Secondary School Kapurthala received third prize.  
Water Audit Competition:   Vedita & Sameer, Sehajdeep & Avneet from Manav Sehyog School Jalandhar stood first, second respectively  and Jasleen & Shubhreet from Cambridge Sultanpur clinched third prize.