The Central Government is mulling to make the Brahmaputra Board more pro-active.
This was stated by UP Singh, Secretary to the Union Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) during the inauguration of a day-long seminar on synergy among organizations working in water resources sector in the north-eastern region organized by the Brahmaputra Board at the Academic Staff College in Guwahati on Thursday.
He also said that the Centre is exploring prospective role of the Board if the proposed North East Water Management Authority (NEWMA) comes up.
While citing the initiative of Sikkim in utilizing spring water for irrigating the farmlands, Singh said that such innovative and new concepts should be adopted by the other north-eastern states.
He also said that the Union Ministry of Water Resources under its National Hydrology Project (NHP) is collecting data and developing a decision-making system to extend support to the states in matters of water resources management and the problems like flood, by making all the relevant data available on a single platform.
He further expressed concern that India is now a water-stressed country and it extracts 25 per cent of the world groundwater reserve.
Singh also revealed that the Central Water Commission (CWC) has now collaborated with Google to make forecasts on the calamities like flood at least 72 hours ahead of their occurrence.
He also warned that failure to manage the rivers properly may turn many rivers of the country into myths as had happened in the case of the Saraswati river.