Dhalai District of Tripura has been announced as the Best District for the 5th National Water Awards 2023 in the North East Region.
Union minister of Jal Shakti CR Patil announced the list of winners of 5th National Water Awards at Shram Shakti Bhawan New Delhi on Monday.
In the category of Best State, the first prize has been conferred upon Odisha, with Uttar Pradesh securing the second position, and Gujarat and Puducherry jointly securing the third position.
In the category of the North East Zone, Dhalai District clinched top spot.
How Dhalai District emerged winner
Major achievements of the Dhalai District in the field of water conservation include creation of 748 community recharge structures, micro irrigation systems in additional 15 hectares of land, excavation of 63 ponds, construction of 176 check dams with storage capacity of 9 lakh cubic metres and construction of 137 water tanks for rainwater harvesting.
In addition, 25,684 water bodies available in the district have been geo tagged and mapped. 41.32 lakhs of miscellaneous and bamboo tree saplings have been nurtured and planted across the district’s expanse.
Community engagement with local communities through interactive sessions, awareness campaigns, workshops and training sessions, has been undertaken to explain water usage patterns and to encourage community participation in conservation and management initiatives.
What is NWAs
The National Water Awards (NWAs) focus on the good work and efforts made by individuals and organisations across the country in attaining the government’s vision of a ‘Jal Samridh Bharat’.
The awards are for creating awareness among the people about the importance of water and motivating them to adopt best water usage practices.
For the year 2023, 5th National Water Awards were launched on 13th October 2023 on Rashtriya Puraskar Portal of Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). A total of 686 applications were received.
Based on the ground truthing reports, a total of 38 winners, including Joint winners, covering 09 different categories have been selected for the 5th NWA, 2023.
The Department of Water Resources, River Development, and Ganga Rejuvenation (DoWR, RD &GR), announced that award distribution ceremony for the 5th National Water Awards, 2023 will be held on 22nd October, 2024 at 11.00 am at Plenary Hall, Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. President Droupadi Murmu will be the Chief Guest at the event.
(Tripura, Northeast)
