Lucknow: The Yogi Government of Uttar Pradesh has launched a massive campaign to save water in order to promote water harvesting in the state.

  As part of this campaign, the Yogi Government is setting up rooftop rainwater harvesting facilities in government and semi-government buildings in six major cities. The State Government has entrusted the JalJeevan Mission of the Minor Irrigation Department with the responsibility of saving rainwater in order to avert a water crisis in the future.

  According to a spokesperson of the state government the Yogi Government accords priority to water conservation and is installing rooftop rainwater harvesting facility in 2,19,376 government and semi-government buildings in Meerut, Bareilly, Lucknow, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur and Jhansi. Out of these, work on a rooftop rainwater harvesting facility in 2,07,876 buildings is in progress while it has already been completed in 11,500 buildings.

The spokesperson said that the campaign has evoked overwhelming responses from people and has turned into a mass movement. People have installed harvesting systems in their homes to save water.   Furthermore, various water harvesting facilities are being installed at both private and public places under MNREGA in rural areas. This includes setting up of rooftop rainwater harvesting system at government schools of the village and digging ponds and recharge pits in the beneficiary farmer's field. In this context, the campaign for compulsory installation of rooftop rainwater harvesting system in all government and semi-government buildings in metropolitan cities is going on at war-footing. Executive engineers have been designated as nodal officers at the district level to monitor the progress in the implementation of the action plan prepared to save rainwater. The district magistrates have also been asked to carry out the work expeditiously, he said.