Bay of Bengal

The study assesses the suitability of groundwater for drinking and irrigation use and examines the likely impact of Yamuna river water quality on groundwater. Delhi is faced with severe problems associated with groundwater quality and quantity. The quality varies spatially and seasonally, with depth and is primarily governed by the extent and composition of dissolved solids present in it. Surface water bodies play a role and the hydraulic gradient determines the lateral and vertical migration in the groundwater flow system.

Groundwater samples were collected through extensive field surveys covering entire Delhi area representing various geo-hydrological and land-use conditions. The data has been analysed with respect to BIS and WHO standards to examine its suitability for various uses. The area has a peculiar feature of infiltration of surface water to groundwater from river Yamuna and from various drains.

The study estimates the snow cover area for four major basins in the Himalayan region viz. Chenab up to Akhnoor, Ganga up to Devprayag, Satluj up to Bhakra and Beas up to Pandoh using IRS - IC and ID WiFS data. Snow cover estimation was done for the years 1997-2000 using image processing system ERDAS Imagine. The maximum and minimum snow cover extent for the month of September-October and March-April were delineated and on the basis of these the depletion curves for each basin was made for the four years. This output is useful for carrying out snowmelt runoff modeling.

The hydrological study for the experimental representative basins, Ghataprabha and Malaprabha, of the Krishna river basin attempts to standardize and develop methodologies for providing solutions for understanding and solving various hydrological problems of the hard rock regions of India.

Representative basins are basins, which are selected as representative of a hydrological region within which hydrological similarity is presumed and can be used for intensive investigation of specific problems of the hydrological cycle. This can then take a wide-ranging role representing a broad area to which the data can be transferred. 

The study models the variations in water quality parameters of Yamuna river by means of stochastic approach using Central Water Commission’s monthly data for the period 1990-95 and makes projections for the year 1996. The results obtained for different water quality variables have been compared with the observed values and were found to be satisfactory. 

The study conducts an extensive water quality survey in sixteen reaches of Kali river in western Uttar Pradesh to estimate the inflow of two major nutrients (nitrate and phosphate) from point and non-point sources. The study intends to validate the present model based on the principle of conservation of mass and reaction kinetics phenomenon.

Data was taken for one annual cycle on a monthly basis and criteria developed to compute the non point source load from nine sub-basins in various stretches of the river. The computed loads at each section obtained from the predictive equation have been compared with the values observed in the field. The performance of the developed equation has been evaluated using percentage error estimation and correlation statistics. Remote sensing and geographical information systems (GIS) have been used to develop correlation between basin characteristics and non-point source loads.

These two documents from the KSPCB website, provide monthly water quality status data, for the rivers Tungabhadra, Cauvery and Kabini, monitored between January to June 2007, at various points along the rivers.

The data recorded are Temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and Faecal Coliform.

Highlights of the February 2010 issue of "Water MOVES", a quarterly newsletter on Water Governance from the Water Governance Project at Society For Promotion of Wastelands Development (SPWD):

SIMPLE & EFFECTIVE Method to increase WATER to east flowing RIVERS of SOUTH INDIA.

WESTERN GHATS are the mighty walls created by the nature.

Delhi, India

I, Gopi Dutt, want to draw your attention to problem that Delhi has been facing since as long as 10 yrs now. I am talking about the pollution in Yamuna caused by devotional material, Polybags, Flowers etc. Our govt., different NGOs and now Maharaja Sri Sri Ravi Shankar have put their best efforts to clean up the river. We all have been trying to clean it up for the past 10 yrs but it hasn’t stopped yet. Does anyone have a plan to stop this that here is no further need to clean n re-clean the river? The problem is that we only create awareness that people should not pollute the river but there are no measures taken to stop this pollution.

When the foundation stone for the Kosi embankment was laid on January 14, 1955, near Nirmali in Saharsa district in Bihar, euphoric people shouted, Aadhi roti khayenge, Kosi bandh banayenge (we will eat only half a chapati but we will surely build the embankment), writes the prolific engineer and activist Dinesh Mishra in his book, “ Trapped! Between the Devil and the Deep Waters.” No one really paid any attention to the protests and the fears of the people who would live with these embankments and what would happen to their lives.