Ganjam Odisha News: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's native district of Ganjam has been selected as the best district for the fourth National Water Award-2022 by the Ministry of Jal Shakti for its work on conservation of water bodies, officials said Tuesday.

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Ganjam collector Dibya Jyoti Parida said the award ceremony date was not fixed and will be intimated in due course.

The Collector said a "team of scientists of the Central government visited different water bodies in the district in February to take stock of the situation before declaring the award".

The team had visited different rural tanks, minor irrigation projects and other water bodies as also studied the functioning of the ‘Pani Panchayat.' To ensure efficient management of water resources, the district administration has given "utmost emphasis on conservation, ground water recharge, efficient treatment and re-use of waste water, massive plantation and capacity building in water management", said Parida.

The administration has taken up several initiatives in convergence with different departments, he added Some of the innovative initiatives taken up by the administration included augmenting irrigation potential by renovating Jayamangal inundation channel, renovation of left flood bank of river Rushikulya, construction of check dams.

During the year, the district administration has constructed 1200-km of secondary drains, 188-km of link drains and 268 check dams, sources said.