Question : Water Scarcity for Agriculture

(a) whether several bighas of agricultural land in several States of the country particularly Uttar Pradesh are getting barren or farming becoming unproductive due to water scarcity;

(b) if so, the details thereof, district-wise;

(c) whether the Government proposes to implement the scheme on the lines of several foreign countries to reuse treated sewage effluent, sewage or waste water;

(d) if so, the details thereof along with the details of the countries whose schemes are likely to be emulated/implemented by the Government; and

(e) the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to reuse the waste water for agricultural purposes?

MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

???? ??? ????? ?????? ?????? ( SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

(a) & (b): As per Agricultural Statistics 2017, Government of India, the barren and un-culturable land was reduced from 38.16 million ha to 17.00 million ha. from1950-51 to 2014-15. In the State of Uttar Pradesh, the same was reduced to 0.46 million ha by 2014-15. The State wise details are given at Annexure-I and district wise of Uttar Pradesh is given at Annexure-II.

(c) to (e): Government of India is providing funds to the States/UTs under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Smart Cities Mission of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Development (MoH&UD) for the implementation of the sewerage projects. Recycling and reuse of treated wastewater is being encouraged under AMRUT and mandated under Smart Cities Mission.


Contd…2/-

-2-


Further, a dedicated chapter on recycling and reuse of sewage has been incorporated in the MoH&UD’s Manual on Sewerage and Sewage Treatment Systems, 2013 - Part A: Engineering including guiding principles for farm forestry and horticulture, for guiding the States/UTs, in this regard.

MoH&UD has published and adopted Service Level Benchmark (SLB) for water and sanitation sector under National Urban Sanitation Programme (NUSP) in 2008 with a view to shift the focus of urban development projects from infrastructure creation to improvement of service levels. The aforesaid SLB advocates 20 % reuse and recycling of treated wastewater. This includes reuse and recycling of treated wastewater for agricultural purposes.

Government of India has launched the Jal Shakti Abhiyan from 1st July 2019 which is a time bound campaign with a mission mode approach intended to improve water availability including reuse of waste water.