One Day Workshop for School Children on Rainwater Conservation and Management at NITTTR, Chandigarh
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ May 17,2023
A one day workshop for school children of Chandigarh on “Rainwater Conservation and Management” on 17th May 2023 was organised by National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research Sector 26, Chandigarh. This workshop was organised under the initiatives of Jal Shakti Mission of Government of India under which a massive campaign has been initiated by Jal Shakti Mission for conserving monsoon rainwater.
Under this three events were organised (a) Seminar on Importance of Rainwater Conservation and Management (b) Poster competition for the students of Class V to X on the theme of Rainwater Conservation and Management and (c) Debate Competition on “Construction of Bigger Dams: Boon or Bane”
During the seminar on Importance of Rainwater and Conservation the co-ordinator of workshop Prof U N Roy highlighted the importance of rainwater conservation. He talked about the rainfall pattern in India and its diversity then he discussed briefly about conservation of rainwater in ponds, small check-dams and groundwater recharge. India is known as tube wells economy because groundwater is being exploited in a major way throughout the country for agricultural and industrial purposes which has depleted the aquifers rapidly. The groundwater which used to be at 40 – 50 in 1960 and 1970 now it has gone down up 150 – 200 feet in the Punjab and Haryana. Due to bad management of water we usually face problems of drinking water in summer every year. Drought is also truth for two-third parts of our country so we need to conserve rainwater effectively and efficiently.
Dr Bhola Ram Gurjar, Director of National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research emphasised on the role of the institute in technical teachers training as well as working for the achievements of environmental and societal goals under the mission of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan of ministry of Education, Government of India. He told that how NITTTR is different than normal Engineering Institutes and playing its effective role in technical teachers training and working for entrepreneurship and rural development through polytechnic and engineering colleges of the country. His major focus was to guide the students with a passion to become a disciplined citizen of the country. He also described how water is important in our tradition and even part of the folklore.
The chief guest of the seminar Dr Swati Samwatsar, who is an environmentalist from Indore, Madhya Pradesh emphasised of water conservation in traditional as well as modern methods especially by construction of smaller check dams. Dr Swati Samwatsar and Er Milind Pandit have been working in a team for the development of watershed in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra for last 30 years. They have constructed about 3000 small and medium size water harvesting structures in terms of check dams, anicuts and ponds. They presented various success stories from Jhabua, Dhaulpur, Rajasthan; Alirajpur, Maharashtra. Recently they are working for revival of River Kshipra near Ujjain and for this historical river Rs. 1700 crore budget has been allocated by the government of Madhya Pradesh.
200 school children of class V to XII participated in poster making and debate competition. Apart from 70 teachers from schools also participated in the seminar. The theme of the poster was Rainwater Conservation and Management. In the first category of class V and VI the winners of awards were Ms Bhavini from Bhavan Vidyalaya, Sector 27, and Chandigarh secured first Prize.Second Prize was shared by two student namely Tanya and Parnika Kaushal from Manav Mangal High School Sector 21 C, Chandigarh and Gurukul Global School Manimajra, Chandigarh respectively. The third prize was given to Hemanya Goel from Delhi Public School Chandigarh. The consolation prize was given to Sakshi and Jaipriya from Khuda Ali Sher Chandigarh and AKSIPS Sector 41, B Chandigarh respectively. In the Second category of class VII and VIII the winners of awards were First Prize to Harshita from GMSSS Raipur Kalan, Second Prize to Aryan of GMSSS, Sector 33 D, Chandigarh, third prize was shared by Naina Thakur from Gurukul Global School Manimajra, Chandigarh and by Annvi from GMSSS, Sector 21 A Chandigarh. The consolation prize was shared by Mannat from St Aurobindo School Sector 27A Chandigarh and Mayra Puri of Sacred Heart SSS Sector 26 Chandigarh. In the third category of class IX and X the winners of awards were First prize was shared by Kanishka from MDAV Sector 22 A Chandigarh and LakshittaManav Mangal High School, Sector 21 C, Chandigarh. The Second and third Prize was given to Mehrunissa from Sacred Heart SSS Sector 26 Chandigarh and Tejinder Kaur AKSIPS Sector 45 A Chandigarh respectively. The consolation prize was shared by Dhriti Puri from Chitkara International School and Himanshu BhattiGMSSS, Sector 39 C, Chandigarh
One Day Workshop for School Children on Rainwater Conservation and Management at NITTTR, Chandigarh. There was debate competition on “Construction of Bigger Dams: Boon or Bane” for the students of class XI and XII in which first prize was shared by Ms. Karen Sharma, Saupin’s School Sector 32 Chandigarh and Monisha Jain from Carmel Convent, Sector 9 B. The second prize was given to Tushti of Govt Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 20 D and Lakshya Kumar of New Public School Sector 18 Chandigarh. Sanvi Sharma from KB DAV Sector 7 received the third prize was along with Deepa Khatri of GMSSS Sector 44, Anjali from GSSS Manimajra Model Town, Chandigarh received consolation prie in this category.
