WUAs have to ensure optimum utilisation of water resources, says Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu

Andhra Pradesh CM Naidu emphasizes WUAs' role in water conservation and irrigation ahead of a 100-day action plan launch.

The Water Users’ Associations (WUAs) have a significant role to play in the conservation of water resources and they need to do their best to enable the government to provide irrigation facility to every acre in the State, observes Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

Addressing members of the WUAs through a teleconference, on the eve of the launch of a 100-day action plan on optimum utilisation of water resources, on Sunday, Mr. Naidu stressed the need for water security and called for collective efforts to achieve it through proper coordinationamong the departments of Water Resources, Forest, Panchayat Raj, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry.

The action plan would be launched at Yadiki in Tadipatri Assembly constituency on April 6 with the basic objective of conserving every drop of rainwater and increasing the groundwater levels.

The WUAs should do water budgetingby estimating availability and demand in their areas and take necessary steps, Mr. Naidu advised.

The Chief Minister told the WUAs to get the feeder canals desilted, check-dams repaired, and new structures built wherever required. He wanted that priority be given to micro-irrigation, and lauded the ‘Jaladhara’ initiative in Annamayya district for its success in recharging the groundwater and filling local tanks.

Mr. Naidu noted that Rayalaseema, which everyone feared would become a desert, emerged as a horticulture hub, and that the State government’s priorities included completion of the Polavaram project and finishing pending works pertaining to the Handri-Neeva Sujala Sravanthi, Galeru-Nagari Sujala Sravanthi, and Telugu Ganga.