The recently published guidelines for convergence of water conservation and irrigation works to be taken up under NREGA and the programmes of Ministry of Water Resources. These are meant to optimize synergies between NREGA and MoWR as more than 50% of NREGA projects are related to water management.

Convergence between NREGA and Programmes of MoWR is mutually beneficial. There is a gap between the irrigation potential created and that utilised. Many of the irrigation projects in the country have also been under operation below their potential due to inadequate maintenance, which is one of the important factor for reduced irrigation efficiency at project level. This has resulted in the problem of low efficiency of water usage and low productivity. Increasing trend of water logging, salinity and alkalinity is offsetting the advantages of irrigation by rendering the affected areas unproductive or under-productive. The process of reclamation is far exceeded by an additional area becoming water logged and saline/alkaline.