Why in news:

• The state government of Haryana has said that the biennial Integrated Water Resources Action Plan (IWRAP) 2023-25 aims at reducing the state’s water deficit by 49.7% in a period of two years.

Key Point:

• In this regard, the state’s aim is to save a total of 22% water in the first year and 27.7% water in the second year. This shows our endeavour to conserve this valuable resource.
• The state government has recently launched the biennial IWRAP 2023-25. Haryana is experiencing a water deficit of about 14 billion cubic metre annually with the total water demand across all sectors going up to about 34.96 billion cubic metre per year (about 34 lakh crore litres). The state has a total water availability of about 20.93 billion cubic metre which included the surface water, the groundwater and the treated wastewater.
• According to the concerned officials, the IWRAP also aimed at meeting the twin challenges of water depletion and waterlogging. The action plan will serve as a roadmap to achieve the targets of water saving and water management in the state.
• All water-related departments have come forward and taken the ownership to conserve water through various demand and supply side interventions, which would save around 6.97 lakh crore litres (49.7 %) of water in next two years.
• The maximum amount of water is used in agriculture and horticulture sector, which are 86% and 5%, respectively. Therefore, continuous efforts are needed to reduce water consumption by adopting water conservation methods.
• In this regard, the agriculture department has included various measures in the action plan and 3.14 lakh acres of area will be covered under crop diversification, which will save 1.05 lakh crore litres (7.6%) water. Direct seeding of paddy will be done in 4.75 lakh acres and will save 1.18 lakh crore liters (8.4%) while 27.53 lakh acres will be brought under conservation tillage to save 0.51 lakh crore liters (3.7%).