Apart from Kashmir’s scenic beauty the main attraction for tourists and other visitors has been the water bodies which are scattered all over the place here. Though the condition of these water bodies may not be good enough to generate positive reviews, but the government it seems has embarked on a path to help their revival.

Just yesterday the government launched the 1st Census of Water Bodies so that a sound data base on them could be worked out for effective planning and policy formation besides a useful reference for the researchers.

The Census of Water Bodies will capture information on important parameters of water bodies like their number, size, condition, type of use, storage capacity etc irrespective of their use both in rural and urban areas of Jammu and Kashmir.

Census of Water Bodies will be controlled and monitored at central level by the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejunvation, GoI and by the office of Financial Commissioner, Revenue at UT level.

The move has come at a time when various questions have been raised over the past several years about the procedures being adopted by various government agencies to help conserve and preserve these water bodies.

Kashmir’s main activity, agriculture and horticulture are directly dependent on our water bodies and any move that will have an adverse effect on these water bodies will have a direct bearing on other vital sectors too.

So preserving or helping to conserve these in a better and professional way will have a direct bearing on our Development departments like Agriculture Production Department, Horticulture Development, PHE and Irrigation and Flood Control Departments.

In the Census of Water Bodies, a water body is defined as all natural or man-made units bounded on all sides with some or no masonry work used for storing water for irrigation or other purposes will be treated as water bodies. A structure where water from ice-melt, streams, springs, rain or drainage of water from residential or other areas is accumulated or water is stored by diversion from a stream, nalla or river is also be treated as water a body.

The process to initiate the census however, has to be a meticulous one and the government functionaries who will be assigned the job should come up with comprehensive plans for their restoration.

The designated officials should to come up with information on a number of identified water bodies, location details, water quality status, compliance status with regard to designated best use, identified water bodies which require restoration, prioritization, of water bodies requiring restoration and detailed action plans for the restoration of identified polluted water bodies.

Notably, J&K and Ladakh UTs have 3651 big and small wetlands and water bodies spread across 22 districts. Four wetlands are identified as Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance. They are Hokersar and Wular in Kashmir, Tsomoriri in Ladakh and Surinsar-Mansar in Jammu.