Patnaik says water becoming scarce resource, engineers have role to conserve

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday said engineers have to play a crucial role in water conservation as it is increasingly becoming a scarce resource with a growing population in the country.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday said engineers have to play a crucial role in water conservation as it is increasingly becoming a scarce resource with a growing population in the country. Addressing a gathering of 106 junior mechanical engineers who have been recruited in the Water Resources Department, he said water needs to be conserved for drinking, irrigation, hydro-electric power, industry, pisciculture, ecological balance and many other purposes. ''In the backdrop of an ever-growing population, water is increasingly becoming a scarce resource. In this context, engineers of the Water Resources Department have to play a major role in the conservation of the resource,'' he said.

During the virtual programme, the chief minister asked the engineers to get themselves acquainted with new technologies.

''Being technocrats, I expect all of you to be in sync with changing and new technologies that can bring efficiency and transparency to your work. That will help achieve the mandate of our 5T (teamwork, technology, transparency, timely completion of work leading to transformation) initiative.'' The Water Resources Department has taken up construction of 30 in-stream storage structures and 16 more are in the pipeline, he said.

These structures will help conserve surface water and enhance the groundwater level, Patnaik said.

Noting that Odisha is primarily an agrarian state, the chief minister said the department has a major responsibility of providing irrigation facilities to farmers.

The department is also responsible to protect lives and property of people from natural calamities, like floods, with scientific management of reservoir water. ''We have more than 2,500 dams and construction of some more facilities like Lower Suktel, Deo, Kanpur and Ghatkeswar are in progress,'' he said.

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