PIB Tracker'Catch the Rain, where it falls': a district model in Nandyal
Andhra Pradesh's Nandyal district is implementing the Catch the Rain campaign (4 July–4 August) across all 489 gram panchayats — reviving tanks and feeder channels and building storage to capture the monsoon, drop by drop.
What happened
- Nandyal district (Andhra Pradesh) is running the Catch the Rain campaign (4 July–4 August 2026).
- The guiding idea is 'Catch the Rain, Where it Falls, When it Falls'.
- Actions include restoring water bodies, desilting feeder channels and reviving tank systems plus new storage.
- Scientific planning covers all 489 gram panchayats — field surveys, watershed mapping and technical assessments.
- It is delivered through departmental convergence and community participation to recharge groundwater and store runoff.
For Prelims
- Catch the Rain: A nationwide rainwater-harvesting campaign under the Jal Shakti Abhiyan; 2026 window 4 July–4 August; motto 'Catch the Rain, Where it Falls, When it Falls'.
- Interventions: Desilting feeder channels, reviving tanks, restoring water bodies and creating additional storage.
- Nandyal model: Scientific planning across 489 gram panchayats with watershed mapping and community consultation.
- Convergence & Jan Bhagidari: Multiple departments plus people's participation — the campaign's delivery method.
- Aim: Capture monsoon runoff, recharge groundwater and strengthen local water security.
- Jal Shakti Abhiyan: The umbrella water-conservation mission under which Catch the Rain runs.
For UPSC: A water-security and decentralised-governance item. Use it for demand-side water management, aquifer recharge, watershed development, and how national campaigns become local action through convergence and people's participation (Jan Bhagidari).
What it is NOT: This is a rainwater-harvesting and water-body-revival campaign at district level — not a new water-supply scheme like the Jal Jeevan Mission's tap-water programme.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.14 · GS3.4 · Linkage L1
Anchor
Water security starts locally — a district harvesting the monsoon where it falls.
Substantiation (data)
Catch the Rain (4 July–4 August) across all 489 gram panchayats of Nandyal, with tank revival, desilting and watershed mapping.
Exemplification
Scientific planning plus consultation with village elders converts a national campaign into ground-level tank and channel restoration.
Problematisation
Sustaining maintenance, encroachment on water bodies and equitable sharing of recharged water remain challenges.
Way-forward
Institutionalise community water budgeting, protect commons, and link harvested storage to groundwater recharge and agriculture.
Position
Decentralised, participatory water conservation is the durable answer to monsoon variability.
Deploys into: Conservation + water/agriculture (GS3.14, GS3.4) · rainwater harvesting, watershed development, groundwater recharge and participatory (Jan Bhagidari) water governance.
Ministry of Jal Shakti · 2026-07-25 · PRID 2289321 · PIB source ↗