World Bank has shown keen interest in making 5,000 villages in Marathwada and Western Vidarbha drought-free, claimed CM Devendra Fadnavis.
World Bank has shown keen interest in making 5,000 villages in Marathwada and Western Vidarbha drought-free, claimed CM Devendra Fadnavis. The bank will provide a loan of Rs 5,000 crore to change the water conservation and crop pattern scenario.
Elaborating the World Bank scheme, Mr Fadnavis said the Maharashtra government had submitted a detailed proposal to the ministry of external affairs. He added that a meeting between World Bank and the Maharashtra government was held during the budget session. “We told a World Bank official that as the state is facing severe drought because of climate change, his organisation should help Maharashtra using the specific fund for created drought mitigation,” said Mr Fadnavis,
He added that generally, the process — from submitting the proposal to getting the loan approved and disbursed — takes one and half year. “But I requested World Bank officials to consider the proposal through one window and they agreed to it,” he said.
According to him, World Bank will support 3,000 villages from Marathwada and 2,000 villages from Vidarbha. Water conservation works will be the focus of this scheme and later the nature of the crop pattern to be adopted be in drought-prone regions would be decided upon, said Mr Fadnavis.
The scheme will be implemented in Aurangabad, Beed, Latur, Osmanabad and Akola, Buldhana, Amravati districts.
When asked whether the water-guzzling sugarcane crop would still be cultivated, the CM said, “Sugarcane is sustainable and its obvious that farmers have the first priority to choose such a crop. We cannot stop any sugar mill but we can bring all sugarcane crops under drip irrigation.” He also said that it is not practical to close old sugar mills and we can make considerations while giving permissions to new sugar mills.
While replying to another question, Mr Fadnavis said, “We have directed all municipal corporations to use sewage water after tertiary treatment to industries. The Kalyan-Dombivali and Thane municipal corporations in particular should adopt this system as the industries around these cities use fresh water supplied by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation.
He added that MIDC was earning money from selling water to industries, as the rate of the water for industrial purposes is high. “Their income would reduce up to a certain level, but people will get more fresh water if MIDC uses tertiary water,” he stated.
