category Regional, chandigarh, , tags Regional, chandigarh, , DW BUREAU Chandigarh Public participation has to be ensured for water conservation efforts, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said on Wednesday, and called for the adoption of the 3-R concept of Reduce, Recycle and Reuse . Khattar, who was addressing the inaugural session of the two-day Water Conclave organised by the Haryana Water Resources Authority in Panchkula, added that there is a need to pay attention to conservation in today s time. For water conservation, public participation is to be ensured in the campaign to save water as it cannot be successful without their participation, he said. One of the objectives of the conclave is to make people aware about water conservation. Khattar, before addressing the gathering, remembered former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, who died at 95 on Tuesday. Khattar said Badal always talked about the peasants and described him as a messiah of farmers , according to a statement. Khattar also dedicated the conclave to the Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch. The chief minister said Haryana is an agrarian state and the farmers are its most important stakeholders. He said most of the water is consumed in industries and homes for purposes other than drinking. However, water is available in a very limited quantity and 85 blocks of the state are in the dark zone today. The dark zone is an area where groundwater depletion exceeds the rate of recharge. Haryana does not have any natural source of water, relying only on rainwater and naturally flowing water from the mountains, the chief minister added. In addition, water is supplied from the Yamuna river along with that of the Satluj, Ravi and Beas through the Bhakra Dam, he said. At present, the water availability in Haryana is 20 Million Acre Feet (MAF) while the demand is 34 MAF. The challenge for us is to bridge this 14-MAF gap, Khattar added. To meet this gap between water demand and availability, rainwater harvesting systems will have to be set up. Apart from this, the capacities of reservoirs, ponds and lakes will need to be increased and groundwater recharging done, he said. In today s time, the soil layer has become solid with the use of pesticides, due to which there is a big problem in groundwater recharge, Khattar said and added that there is a need to pay attention to this. (editor dailyworld.in)