There are prolonged dry spells and floods. Andhra Pradesh has faced deficit rainfall for five years in the last decade. Indiscriminate use of available water (rainfall, surface water, groundwater, and soil moisture) led to water crisis. Hence,the Government has brought all water conservation & plantation activities into acampaign mode for ensuring convergence of the resources, technologies and efforts of all concerned departments under the name of “Neeru-Chettu” (Water and Tree) to promote Water conservation, Water Management & Green cover improvement in a focussed way.

Our vision is to prepare the state as ‘drought proof’ state within 5 years and is aimed to eradicate of poverty and reducing economic inequalities by better Water Conservation. Neeru-Chettu Mission is the sub mission under primary sector mission and it is one of the seven missions constituted for invigorating the growth engines with the main objective being poverty alleviation.

MISSION OBJECTIVES:

1. To drought proof the dry areas through conservation of water and ensure its optimum utilization for supplementing life saving irrigation and drinking water sources through integrated water resources development and management.

2. To bring all catchments and command areas of the irrigation sources under assured irrigation by rehabilitating them with watershed concept in a demand driven mode.

3. To reduce the gap Ayacut by 50% in the next 5 years by increasing water availability and improving water use efficiency in irrigated areas.

4. To treat the degraded lands and increase the area under green cover and density of the existing forests in a systematic manner to achieve “Green Andhra”.

5. To increase the area under production, the productivity and the incomes by strengthening the local self government institutions.

The present project “Andhra Pradesh Community Based Tank Management Project” is part of this strategy and is formulated to ensure participation of farmers in tank management, and optimizing agriculture return.