New Delhi 30 th March –Jal Prahari Samman Samaroh 2023 organised under the joint aegis of the
Ministry of Jal Shakti, Jeevan Jeevan mission and national water mission on March 29, at
Maharashtra Sadan, honoured more than 51 people across the country working passionately towards
climate change and drinking water crisis management. Jal Praharis, including farmers, scientists, IAS,
IRS district-level officers and even school principal, who with their innovative uses, equipment,
experiments, and unique traditional methods have been saving lakhs of water in their areas.
Chief Guest of the occasion, Jal Shakti Minister Shri Gajendra Singh Shikhawat graced the occasion
with his presence and honoured all the 51 people from 22 states of the country. In his speech, he said,
“In the field of water conservation, India’s contribution is extraordinary and beyond imagination.
India’s participation in the United Nations World Water Summit and World Water Forum gave India
a chance to showcase their work in the field of water conservation which even got appreciated by the
United Nations president and other foreign delegates. India’s initiative in Environment and Water
Conservation has set an example for world in a very short span of time. India has diverted all the
resources from general public to Govt. towards the need and concern of water problems, which has
increased three fold with the increase in India’s population. We as responsible Indian citizen should
work sincerely towards saving water and avoiding water wastage for our future generation. The future
of earth lies in water therefore water needs to be saved for future of our mother land, the sooner we
understand the better we are at saving ground water level and climate change for future generation”
Archana Verma, IAS officer and Mission director, National Water Mission very rightly said, “We
never know the worth of water until the well is dry, and going by the figure, the concerns regarding
water shortage is grave and which needs to be addressed the soonest with water crisis management”.
Water Warriors from 22 states across the country were honoured at the Jal Prahari ceremony. One
water saviour each from states like Delhi, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chattisgarh, Gujrat,
Himachal Pradesh, Jammu, Jharkhand, Punjab, Tripura, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana etc. and two
water saviour each from Haryana, Karnataka, Uttarakhand were selected for the honour. Chief Guest
was Minister of Jal Shakti, Honourable Shri Gajendra Singh Shikhawat, Guest of Honor were Dr,
Bhagwat Karad, Shri Gopal Shetty, Shri Unmesh Patil, Shri Gopal Arya, BK Asha Didi, Shri Tridev
Swami, Shri Sunil Deodhar. Along with them ambassadors of many countries including Netherland,
Finland, Malta, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan were present to grace the occasion. Giving more information
about the program, the convenor of the ceremony, Anil Singh said that the National Water Mission,
UNOPS, CEEW were the knowledge partners of the program and Jal Praharis include many schools,
colleges, universities, district officials, non govt organizations and private institutions.
CEO and Editor in Chief, Sarkaritel.com, Ameya Sathe said that “It was the privilege to honour 11
water conservationists from Uttar Pradesh, 8 from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and 10 water
conservationists from Maharashtra for their efforts put in water conservation activities across the
country and the World”
Names of the water warriors that were honoured at the ceremony are: Ajit Powar (IAS), Amit Kumar,
Anil Sharma, Ankit Kumar Agarwal (IAS), Anshul Garg (IAS), Aruna M Vishweshwar, Arvind
Singh, Asha Prabhakar, Bavita Rajput, Bratindi Jena, Chandan Singh Nayal, Chattar Singh, Dattu
Rambhau Dhage, Deepak Gupta, Deepak Meena (IAS), Deepak Hari Ranade, Devashish Majumdar,
Devvrat Rajkumar, Divya Mittal (IAS), Gajendra Singh, Hanumant Baburao, Nagorao Kendra, Kirti
Sharma, MVSS Girdhar, Makarand Anaspure, Manish Rajput, Manubhai Chaudhary, P Yadu
Bhushan Reddy, Peter Alexandar, Prasanna Prabhu, Priyanka Pratap Patil, Rajesh Pandit, Rajkumar
Rajput Ramesh Goyal, Ramesh Kumar Singh, Ravindra Singhal (IPS), Ravindra Kumar Mander
(IAS), Ruma Pathak, Sandeep Kumar Salunkhe (IAS), Sanjay Dutta, Sanju Yadav, Shambhu,
Shashikant Dalvi, Shiv Kumar Upadhayay, Snehal Donde, Suman Sharma, Uddhav V Bhosle, Umesh
Kumar, Vipin Dubey and Abhijeet Raut (IAS Chief).
Significantly, World Water Day is celebrated every year on March 22, which aims to ensure the
availability of clean water in the world and also focus on the importance of water conservation