ITANAGAR, Mar 7: The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has urged the student community to play their role in raising public awareness of the need to conserve water in view of the growing water scarcity in the country.
Addressing the students on the occasion of the 8th state level painting competition organized by the state unit of CGWB at Naharlagun on 5 February, RK Kalita, a scientist at CGWB, pointed out that although Northeast region of the country receives bounty of rainfall and has abundant water resources, there has always been the shortage of water in many places.
He said people living in the hilly areas of Arunachal Pradesh always suffer from water, for which it become very important to conserve water. He sought active participation of students in spreading the message of conserving water to secure life.
Another Scientist, Biplab Ray at CGWB, North Eastern Region, Guwahati highlighted the responsibilities entrusted upon the CGWB. He said that the CGWB has been engaged since its constitution following directivesof the Supreme Court in providing scientific inputs for management, exploration, monitoring, assessment, augmentation and regulation of ground water resources of the country, besides raising public awareness on water conservation through IEC campaigns.
“Moreover, the CGWB tries to exchange its scientific knowledge with the common people and also tries to get information of traditional water harvesting techniques through different IEC activities,” he said.
Director of Elementary Education T Gao said that the people residing in hilly areas always suffer from water problem. Stating that the problem of water scarcity in hilly region is different from plain areas, he appealed to the scientists of the CGWB to work out a strategy to minimize water shortage in various parts of the state.
Gao observed that rampant deforestation is one of the major causes of water scarcity.
“If aforestation and conservation of water do not go hand-in-hand then time is not far when people will suffer from acute water crisis,” he said.
He said that the CGWB’s effort to create awareness on water conservation would surely instil a sense of responsibility among young children to protect nature. He called on the CGWB to arrange similar programmes in other parts of the state also.
Highlighting the importance of water for survival, Superintending Engineer, Water Resources (TW& GW Div) T Ligu called for judicious use of water. He said the little children are the right messengers to spread the message of water conservation to every nook and corner of the society.
Payum Matey, a class VIII student of Ramakrishna Sarda Mission Girls School, Khonsa, Tirap bagged the first prize in the painting competition themed “Save water-secure life”. The second and third prizes went to Ankita Bhattacharjee and Sandhya Kumari -both class VIII students of Malancha Art Academy.
Consolation prizes were also given to 10 participants.
The first, second and third position winners were awarded cash prizes of Rs5000, Rs 3000 and Rs 2000 respectively. The consolation prize winners were awarded Rs 1000 each.
The first three winners would take part in the national level painting competition.
In total, 3106 students from various schools of 14 districts participated in the district level painting competition.
A five-member jury had selected 50 students from the best paintings sent by various schools based on school level painting competition for students of class six, seven and eight.
The state unit of the CGWB conducted the painting competition following directive of the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, which is conducting such competitions nationwide to create awareness among children.
