UP govt, Israel giving final shape to water project for Bundelkhand

JHANSI: Going ahead with the earlier MoU signed between the Israeli ministry of water and the UP government to share technical know-how in solving water crisis in Bundelkhand region in which Babina block had been chosen for the pilot project, a virtual meeting was held between the delegates of both sides on Thursday to give a final shape to the project.
During the meeting of the working group, the UP government was represented by the director, ground water department, UP, VK Upadhyay and DM Jhansi Andra Vamsi, while on behalf of Israel, it was attended by their team leader Den Aloof along with his team members.
Den Aloof said that basic planning for irrigation through river Pahuj in Babina block has already been drawn and now it is time for executing it. For this, they have finalised one out of three companies for executing the work.
On the other hand, DM Jhansi assured full cooperation for executing this ambitious and important project. He also invited the Israel team to visit the site.
“The project is very important for the long-term water sustainability of this region. Therefore, we are putting our best efforts to execute it successfully,” the DM told TOI on Thursday.
An MoU was signed between the two sides on August 20, 2019, for creating an India-Israel Bundelkhand Water Project and successively a ‘plan of cooperation’ was launched to create a long-term sustainable water management project for the region.
This was done keeping in mind that the geographical condition of Bundelkhand region is similar to that of Israel with the latter having much less rainfall and still being a water sufficient region because of their unique conservation techniques.
Meanwhile, Jhansi-based Central Agroforestry Research Institute (CAFRI) has been able to develop a number of agroforestry-based interventions for water conservation technologies in different parts of Bundelkhand region.
As per director CAFRI Dr A Arunachalam, these scientific projects developed in the past one decade have helped in raising the water tables at a number of places across the region giving suitable results.