The Rajasthan government is using web-enabled geo-tagging technology to map and monitor plant-by-plant progress of the state’s mega water harvesting project, the Mukhya Mantri Jal Swavalamban Abhiyan (MJSA).
Over the past eight months, Rajasthan River Basin and Water Resources Planning Authority — which oversees the MJSA — has used web-assigned unique longitudinal and latitudinal addresses for structures to monitor the digging of percolation tanks, building of bunds and anicuts, planting of soil-binding plants and other related work. Over one lakh water harvesting structures across the state have been geo-tagged so far.
“All field officers involved with departments like watershed management, horticulture, NREGA, forest, agriculture, water resources and rural development, ground water and panchayati raj at the district level have been asked to maintain photographs of the work before and after the monsoons to ascertain the impact of the rainwater harvesting project. The photographs when taken through a software records the latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates of a structure,” said Rakesh Reddy, a member in the planning authority.
“All departmental field officers, who usually go to inspect digging of trenches and tanks or planting of saplings in a group, have been instructed to take photographs of earthworks in four phases at the completion of 25 per cent, 50 per cent, 75 per cent and 100 per cent of a structure,” Reddy added. The authority has been accessing the geo-tags through mobile applications like ‘Rajdhara’, which only staff and officers have access to.