New Delhi, October 22 (HS): President Droupadi Murmu will present the fifth National Water Award-2023 at Vigyan Bhavan here today.

According to the official release, the Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Conservation under the Ministry of Jal Shakti on October 14 announced 38 winners including joint winners for the fifth National Water Award-2023 in nine categories namely Best State, Best District, Best Gram Panchayat, Best Urban Local Body, Best School or College, Best Industry, Best Water User Association, Best Institution (other than school or college) and Best Civil Society.

The first award in the category of Best State has been given to Odisha while Uttar Pradesh has secured the second position. Gujarat and Puducherry have jointly secured the third position. Each awardee will be given a citation and a trophy as well as cash prizes in some categories.

It is worth mentioning that the first National Water Award was instituted by DoWR, RD & GR in 2018 to help create awareness among people about the importance of water and motivate them to adopt best water use systems. The second, third and fourth National Water Awards were given for the years 2019, 2020 and 2022. The awards were not given in the year 2021 due to the COVID pandemic.

Hindusthan Samachar / Indrani Sarkar