Vijay Kumar Choudhary: Bihar minister sounds alert on depleting water resources in state | Patna News

Patna: Water resources department (WRD) minister, Vijay Kumar Choudhary, on Tuesday sounded an alert on the depleting surface and ground water resources of the state. He said for want of effective water management, the state would be categorised as water scarce with the per capita water availability at 500-1,000 cubic metres by 2050.
Choudhary was quoting a study conducted by IIT-Patna, under National Water Mission (NWM), on the availability of water resources, its development and management in the state. He was giving the govt’s reply to the House debate on the WRD’s budgetary demand of Rs 7,451.14 crore for the 2025-26 fiscal.
Conducted by Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav, the House passed it by voice vote in the absence of the members of opposition parties, who had walked out of the House.
In his reply, citing an interim report of IIT-Patna submitted in Dec 2023, Choudhary said, “The per capita availability of surface water in the state in 2001 was 1,594 cubic metres, which fell to 1,213 cubic metres in 2017. However, the report estimated that the per capita availability of surface water would become 1,006 cubic metres in 2025, and it would be 635 cubic metres by 2050, a situation which matches with the water scarce category.”
Choudhary said, “In a situation when the state’s future is put in the water scarce category, the development. conservation and better management of the state’s water resources has emerged as a major challenge.”
He also said CM Nitish Kumar had anticipated the unfolding grim future in the state in terms of water and accordingly, launched the Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali (JJH), whose 11 components aimed at conserving water and increasing green cover.
“I am happy to inform the House that the net result of these steps and measures has been positive. As per the 2024 report of Union Jal Shakti ministry, the area of the state’s conserved ground water level has increased by 929 square km,” he said.
“The Centre’s report says that the conserved ground water area was 81,260 square km in 2023, which in 2024 increased to 82,189 square km. Now, the state’s 91% of the area is either in the safe or satisfactory zone in terms of the level of ground water,” he added.