Even as thousands of water bodies have dried up across the country, the scheme to revive, restore and rehabilitate these during the 12th Plan period (2012-17) is still under formulation.

According to the Ministry of Water Resources, a total of 85,807 water bodies in the country are not in use, out which 8,152 have totally dried up.

“The reasons for water bodies not in use are shifting away from community-based tank system to individual beneficiary-oriented ground water dependent system, inadequate maintenance, encroachments, diversion of land, among other reasons,” Minister of Water Resources Harish Rawat has said. “The scheme to revive, restore and rehabilitate water for implementation during the 12th Plan is under formulation.”

> aditi.n@thehindu.co.in

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