VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh bagged the third place in the country in the National Water Awards 2018. Maharashtra and Gujarat stood first and second. Further, AP got awards in six different categories.
Anantapur was adjudged the best district in Southern States in the Groundwater Recharge category. Visakhapatnam stood second among the aspirational districts in the Groundwater Recharge category. Kurnool got the first place in Southern States in the Revival of River category, while Kadapa was adjudged the best aspirational district in the same category.
AP gets awards in six different categories
JR Nagar Residents Welfare Association in Visakhapatnam got the third place in the Residents Welfare Associations category, while Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy Devasthanam in Simhachalam achieved the first place in the Organisation for Best Religious/Recreational and Tourism Water Users category.
The awards were received by Minister for Water Resources Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, along with Engineer-In-Chief Venkateswarlu and Anantapur District Collector G Veerapandian from Union Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari at the award presentation ceremony in New Delhi on Monday.
Expressing happiness over AP bagging several awards, including the third best State in the National Water Awards for 2018, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu congratulated the Water Resources Department. The State has bagged 7 awards out of 11 nominations it sent.
Speaking to media after the award ceremony, Umamaheswara Rao attributed the credit to Chief Minister Naidu. “It is his foresight, relentless efforts and continuous monitoring of irrigation projects, which saw the State proving itself in different categories of water resources conservation and management,” he said.
Anantapur Groundwater Department Project Director Jyothi Basu said over 1 lakh farm ponds were constructed in the district in 2018 under NREGS.
“The ponds helped in improving the groundwater table in the drought-prone district. Further, the water in the ponds helped the farmers wet their crops during dry spell,” he explained. Expressing happiness over bagging the award, Simhachalam temple EO said as part of water conservation, they dug 12 km contour trenches and constructed several check dams and tanks to harvest rainwater.