VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh has made it to the list of top 10 States which have been ranked on efficiency targets in the review of water departments of State and Central governments by the ministry of Jal Shakti.
The State has been ranked nine in the surface water category and 17 in the ground water category, according to the ranking, in which Gujarat has emerged as the best performing state. The parameters according to which the ranks were decided include procurement, finance, real-time data acquisition system (RTDAS), data digitisation, analytical work, training and updating MIS.
A total of 35 agencies were included in the second phase of the survey by the Jal Shakti Abhiyan, an intensive water conservation campaign of the Central government. The state scored 43.32 and 49.23 marks out of the total 100 each in ground and surface water categories, respectively.
As such, the State has done satisfactory work in surface water and moderately satisfactory in groundwater categories under the project. As per the survey guidelines, those scoring 48-100 are satisfactory, 40-48 are moderately satisfactory, 34-40 moderately unsatisfactory and below 34 are unsatisfactory performers.
However, the officials have stated that the State has slipped a few ranks as compared to the earlier survey rankings. "We were among the first five in the first phase, but we are yet to find out by how many exact ranks have we come down. However, this is the second phase result, which means it is a mid-term ranking. The final rankings are expected in April and so we still have a chance to better our position," said Special Chief Secretary, Water Resources, Aditya Nath Das.
Along with AP, Telangana, West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh are placed in the satisfactory category. The ranks are awarded as part of the National Hydrology Project, which aims at improving drought and flood situation, plugging leakages in dams and canals, creating state-specific database on water management and keeping a check on meteorological forecast on water resources.
Groundwater category (rank 17)
Total 43.32/100
Surface water (rank 9)