PIB – 05 October 2021

JAL JEEVAN MISSION

Focus: Government policies and Interventions

Why in News?

Five crore households had been provided with water connections since the launch of the Jal Jeevan Mission in 2019.

• Tap water was now reaching every household in about 1.25 lakh villages.
• Jal Jeevan Mission app has also been launched for improving awareness among stakeholders and for greater transparency and accountability of schemes under the mission.
• The Rashtriya Jal Jeevan Kosh has also been launched, where any individual, institution or philanthropist, be it in India or abroad, could contribute to help provide tap water connections.

About Jal Jeevan Mission:

Nodal: Ministry of Jal Shakti

• Jal Jeevan Mission, a central government initiative under the Ministry of Jal Shakti, aims to ensure access of piped water for every household in India.
• National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) was restructured and subsumed into Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) – to provide Functional Household Tap Water (FHTC) to every rural household with service level at the rate of 55 lpcd i.e., Har Ghar Nal Se Jal (HGNSJ) by 2024.

Implications 

• Supply of water to all households is a basic necessity
• Reduction in water borne diseases which was due to due to consumption of substandard water

Challenges

• Critical situation of Decrease in ground water table.
• Water demand and supply is a miss match
• Contamination of local ground level sources of water like, ponds lakes and wells.
• Sustaining the provision of water to all households is a challenge, not just starting it.

ALIBAUG WHITE ONION

Focus: GS III – Intellectual property rights

 Why in News?

The Alibaug white onion was given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag, bringing worldwide recognition to its medicinal properties.

• Alibaug, is a coastal town, just south of Mumbai, in the state of Maharashtra
• Local farmers have preserved the seed for over two centuries. The onion is also mentioned in a government gazette published in 1883.

 Key takeaways 

• The soil of Alibaug taluka has low sulphur content. 
• The onions have low pungency, sweet taste, ‘no tear’ factor, low pyruvic acid, high protein, fat and fibre content, besides high antioxidant compounds (quercetin). 
• It boosts immunity, helps with insomnia, blood cleaning, blood pressure and heat-related ailments. 

About GI Tag

• Geographical Indications of Goods are defined as that aspect of industrial property which refer to the geographical indication referring to a country or to a place situated therein as being the country or place of origin of that product.
• Typically, such a name conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness which is essentially attributable to the fact of its origin in that defined geographical locality, region or country.

• Geographical Indications are covered as a component of intellectual property rights (IPRs) under the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property.
• GI is also governed by the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
• In India, Geographical Indications registration is administered by the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 which came into force with effect from September 2003, this tag is issued by the Geographical Indication Registry under the Department of Industry Promotion and Internal Trade (DIPIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• The first product in India to be accorded with GI tag was Darjeeling tea in the year 2004-05.
• The registration of a geographical indication is valid for a period of 10 years.
• It can be renewed from time to time for further period of 10 years each.
• The Geographical Indications Registry would be located at Chennai.
• Any association of persons, producers, organisation or authority established by or under the law can be a registered proprietor.
• Their name should be entered in the Register of Geographical Indication as registered proprietor for the Geographical Indication applied for.
• Karnataka has the highest number of GI tags i.e. 47 products followed by Tamil Nadu (39).

WETLANDS OF INDIA PORTAL

Focus:  GS-III: Environment and Conservation

 Why in News?

On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti and heralding the Iconic Week of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav of MoEFCC (4-10th October 2021), a web portal – ‘Wetlands of India Portal’ ( http://indianwetlands.in/), giving details on wetlands of the country, was launched by the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Details:

• The portal is a single point access to all information relating to wetlands – capacity building material, data repository, videos and and information for students. 
• A dashboard for each State and UT has been developed to access the portal and populate it with information of wetlands in their administration.
• The project is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) under the International Climate Initiative (IKI).

 What are wetlands?

• A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded by water, either permanently or seasonally, where oxygen-free processes prevail.
• The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other land forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique hydric soil.
• The main wetland types are swamp, marsh, bog, and fen; sub-types include mangrove forest, carr, pocosin, floodplains, mire, vernal pool, sink, and many others.
• The largest wetlands include the Amazon River basin, the West Siberian Plain, the Pantanal in South America, and the Sundarbans in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta.

Importance of Wetlands

Wetlands play a number of functions such as:

• Water storage (flood control)
• Groundwater replenishment
• Shoreline stabilisation and storm protection
• Water purification
• Reservoirs of biodiversity
• Pollination
• Wetland products
• Cultural values
• Recreation and tourism
• Climate change mitigation and adaptation

Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life.

Wetland disturbances

Wetlands, the functions and services they provide as well as their flora and fauna, can be affected by several types of disturbances – the predominant ones include the following:

• Enrichment/eutrophication
• Organic loading and reduced dissolved oxygen
• Contaminant toxicity
• Acidification
• Salinization
• Sedimentation
• Altered solar input (turbidity/shade)
• Vegetation removal
• Thermal alteration
• Dehydration/aridification
• Inundation/flooding
• Habitat fragmentation
• Other human presence

Human Activities that affect Wetlands:

• Drainage
• Development
• Over-grazing
• Mining
• Unsustainable water use

Wetlands have historically been the victim of large draining efforts for real estate development, or flooding for use as recreational lakes or hydropower generation.