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First Waterbodies Census

News: The Ministry of Jal Shakti has published the results of the nation’s first-ever water body census, providing important new information about the water resources of the nation.

The census offers a thorough inventory of the country’s water resources, revealing differences between rural and urban areas as well as different degrees of invasion.

The 6th Minor Irrigation Census for 2017–18 was done concurrently with the waterbodies census.

A waterbody is described in the definition as “all-natural or man-made units bounded on all sides with some or no masonry work used for storing water for irrigation or other purposes.”

The census sought to gather information on the encroachment of water bodies as well as to give an inventory of India’s water resources, including both natural and artificial water bodies such ponds, tanks, and lakes.

There were 24,24,540 water bodies counted in the entire nation, with West Bengal having the most (7.47 lakh) and Sikkim having the fewest (134).

West Bengal has the most ponds and reservoirs overall.

In terms of waterbodies, South 24 Parganas in West Bengal is the best district.

Among all states, Andhra Pradesh has the most tanks.

Lake density is highest in Tamil Nadu.

Maharashtra is a pioneer in water conservation initiatives.

According to the research, only 2.9% of waterbodies are located in urban areas, leaving 97.1% of them in rural areas.

Ponds make up the majority of the waterbodies, followed by lakes, tanks, reservoirs, water-conservation plans, percolation tanks, check dams, and other structures.

The census also gathered information for the first time on the encroachment of waterbodies, which showed that 1.6% of all identified waterbodies are infringed upon, with 95.4% of encroachments occurring in rural areas and the remaining 4.6% occurring in urban areas.

More than 75% of the area of the waterbody is covered by encroachments, which is a substantial percentage.