Conservation of water and soil is everyone’s responsibility, students told

Director of Water and Land Management Institute (WALMI) Girish Maraddi has said that ensuring higher productivity and conservation of soil and water have become everyone’s prime responsibility because of growing population and reduction in cultivable land.

He was speaking during the inauguration of a workshop on Integrated Water and Land Management organised for students of JSS SM CBSE School by WALMI in Dharwad on Wednesday.

The workshop was organised to sensitise children to the need for conserving waterbodies and using water judiciously.

Elaborating on climate change and other developments happening around the world, Mr. Maraddi called upon students to become water warriors. As children are the future citizens of the country, they have a significant responsibility of using the available natural resources judiciously and also take up water conservation as a duty, he said.

Mr. Maraddi said that in a bid to help students develop ecological concerns and to prepare them for future ecological challenges, WALMI will be holding sensitisation programmes in schools across the region and the one being held at JSS School is the first in the series of such programmes to be conducted by the institute.

Speaking on the initiatives taken by the JSS group of institutions, Principal of JSS ITI Mahaveer Upadhyay said that the SDM Institution has already undertaken work to desilt over 3,000 lakes in rural areas to ensure water storage and conservation.

To overcome the challenges being posed by urbanisation and the damage caused to ecology, ensuring rainwater harvesting and conservation and development of existing water bodies are crucial, he said.

Principal of JSS School Sadhana S. spoke about the importance of water and soil conservation, the role played by farmers in the country and also the duties of students towards their nation.

As many as 980 students and 50 teachers participated in the workshop.