India Seeks Tourism Industry's Help to Save Water Resources

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:22:33 +0530

Delegates who were attending the inaugural session of water conservation at the annual gathering of overseas Indians in Bangkok were surprised to know that the chief guest was Mr. Subodh Kant Sahai, who is the Tourism Minister of India. The minister made perfunctory statements about the tourism promotions. Mr. Sahai also stated that the new policy to be introduced is intended to make tourists aware as not to squander the precious water resources in the country.

He urged the Indian folks who had gathered for the annual events known as PBD (Pravasi Bharatiya Divas) to construct hotels that would entirely focus on conserving water in equal measure as a guest comfort.

As per India’s 12^th five year plan, the tourism sector has been announced as a poverty alleviating sector, which can boost the economic progress of rural areas and provide jobs to people residing n the rural areas. The country expects five million visitors in the next few years that would help create 25 million jobs.

But hotels and tourists are important water-guzzlers in India, which has an enormous population of 1.21 billion. The rapid economic development in the country also has put a huge pressure on scarce water resources.

The country is majorly dependent on the monsoon season but the precipitation level is uneven both temporarily and geographically. The delegates were stunned to find that Cherrapunji, which is known to be the wettest place in the world, receives most of the rainfall over a period of over 4 months and suffers a shortage of water supply throughout rest of the year.

A theme paper mentioned: “With more than 60% of irrigated agriculture and 85% of drinking water suppliers dependent on it, groundwater is a vital resource for rural areas in India. Reliance of urban and industrial waste supplies on groundwater is also becoming increasingly significant.”

Efforts are being implemented to recycle, store and conserve water through measures such as harvesting, storage and rainwater. One of the speakers at the congregation said that these hotels should consider providing buckets to the guests.

Mr. Sanjay Kothari, Joint Additional Secretary of the Ministry said, “One proposal being considered is to set up tourism promotion forums in several cities abroad, to be chaired by the respective Indian ambassadors and involving all those in the industry who are linked to India, including tour operators and airlines”.

A new scheme called Hunar se Rozgaar has been created to create jobs for the youth who are aged between 18 and 28 years and have completed schooling until the 8^th Std.

India Travel News tagged save-water, Latest Travel News, Travel Breaking News

India Seeks Tourism Industry's Help to Save Water Resources