Most water packaging units operating without license: FSSAI
Going by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), out of the 5,842 registered water packaging units, only 1,495 units have both BIS and FSSAI licences, while 4,347 units, including reputed firms like Hindustan Coca-cola, Pepsico and Bisleri, have only the BIS certification. However, FSSAI has maintained that there is no safety or quality concern over the bottled water supplied by these units but obtaining the certification is one of the requirements for such businesses to operate.
Rise in violence over water in central India
Police from the northern and the central India has reported rise in disputes over water. The violence is getting frequent and bloody, thanks to consecutive droughts for two years in these regions. Moreover, in places like Bundelkhand, many people are leaving their houses and abandoning work in search of water. The activists who works in this area says such crisis is the result of over-consumption, wasteful use of water and inefficient water governance systems.
Polluted Khan river water enters Kshipra
Right after Simhastha, the pollution levels rose in the Kshipra river as the polluted water of Khan river has started mixing into the river again. This has led to killing of thousands of fishes in the Kshipra river. The Rs 90 crore project to divert the Khan river water was supposed to be complete by February this year, but a stretch of 1.8 km is still pending.
In last six months, 50 crore litres of water transported to Bhilwara
The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) has created history by transporting 50 crore litres of water from Ajmer to Bhilwara in the last six months. Bhilwara has been facing acute water crisis due to breakage of main water pipeline. This is the first time that the water is continuously being transported to a district in Rajasthan. According to the PHED minister, Bhilwara will start getting continuous supply of water from the Chambal river in November.
In just 60 days, Jharkhand creates one lakh water bodies
Under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the state has successfully created one lakh water bodies in just 60 days to conserve water and irrigate fields. The constructed water bodies are expected to irrigate nearly 50,000 acres of arable land. However, the overall target is to create about six lakh small water bodies in the state, but the work has been suspended due the monsoon rains.
This is a roundup of important news updates from June 25 –July 2, 2016. Also read last fortnight's policy matters update.
Lead image source: Pixabay.com