Political

How exactly do contaminants spread underground? How much urban stress can an aquifer withstand?

With the need for clean fresh water growing daily, finding answers to those questions is a top priority for researchers at G360, the new Centre for Applied Groundwater Research at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

Organizer: Sambodhi Research & Management Institute

Venue: Sambodhi Research & Management Institute, New Delhi

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Article courtesy: CGNet Swara

Kelo dam hunger strike: 7 more farmers shifted to hospital
Rajesh Tripathi is reporting from continuing hunger strike of farmers from Kelo dam site in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh. He says 7 more farmers have now been shifted to hospital. 4 were shifted before in last 2 days.

 The area suffers from water scarcity, natural resource degradation, low crop productivity (1–1.5 t/ha), low rainwater use efficiency (35–45  per cent), high erosion, poor soil fertility, frequent droughts, poor irrigation facilities, heavy biotic pressure on forests, inadequate vegetation cover and frequent crop failure resulting in scarcity of food, fodder and fuel. The region has serious limitations of ground and surface-water availability and heavily depends upon perched water for drinking as well as irrigation.

 Himalaya is one of the youngest mountain systems on Earth, and has a direct influence on the climate, hydrology and environment of the Indian subcontinent. It is the abode of one of the world’s largest and mostly inaccessible area of glaciers outside the polar region and provides glacier-stored water to the major Indian river basins. Many of the Himalayan rivers are fed by snow and ice melt run-off from snow fields and glaciers.

 Due to my childhood acquaintance with paddy cultivation, I used to be curious to understand global processes and methodologies around this cultivation and to do better to help my local community benefit.

Organizer: Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) - Community Environmental Resource Centre (CERC)

Venue: St.George Parish Hall, Muhamma, Kerala

Organizer: Urban Leaves

Venue: Maharashtra Nature Park, Opp Dharavi Bus Depot, Dharavi, Mumbai.

Description:

Groundwater caters to the demand of ever growing domestic, agricultural and industrial sector of the country and is being indiscriminately exploited by several users. On the other hand, rapid urbanization and land use changes has resulted in reduced natural infiltration or recharge of aquifers.

This has led to various problems related to quantity and quality and issues like the decline in water levels, depletion of groundwater resource and quality deterioration. There is thus an imperative need for augmenting the valuable groundwater resource. Artificial recharge and roof top rainwater harvesting is one such method that can revive this precious resource. Several traditional and scientifically proven artificial recharge and rainwater harvesting techniques have been adopted in different parts of the country. These structures have proven to be viable option for augmenting the groundwater aquifers by making use of surplus surface runoff.