Shirpur pattern to solve water woes of Jalna
AURANGABAD: A day after chief minister Prithviraj Chavan said that the government was seriously contemplating the introduction of Shirpur pattern of water conservation in drought-hit Jalna district, senior geologist and water expert Suresh Khanapurkar, one of the pioneers of the pattern, expressed confidence on making the district least dependable on the newly inaugurated water supply scheme. Shirpur pattern has been successfully implemented in drought-hit Dhule district and impressed by it, the chief minister announced an aid of Rs 8 crore for the Jalna administration to introduce the pattern. "It is just a matter of time that the residents will no more be dependent on any other source of water than the ones within the district limits," Khanapurkar told TOI. "As per the monsoon pattern, Jalna gets rain at least three times more than their annual consumption. However, as the district is poorly equipped, all the rainwater gets drained away. To tackle the problem, the w