Political

According to David Foster, it is the cost of 'free' water :

Some video clippings of the Arkavathy Janadesh Yatra, a river walk along the entire length of the Arkavathy river outside Bangalore, to draw attention to this dying river.

Two press releases on the work being done by the National Disaster Management Authority regarding early warning systems for flooding, guidelines for management of urban flooding and more : http://www.pibmumbai.gov.in/scripts/detail.asp?releaseId=E2008PR58

On 29^th January, my colleague Binayak and I went to Nelmangala to participate in the "Save Arkavathy"Walk. The Walk was organized hoping that the participants would learn from the experiences of the villagers along the Arkavathy River and be able to generate interest in them to join the walk.

There is a spurt of gastro-enteritis in the city today. Residents think that it is the contaminated mains supply from the BWSSB that is the source of the gastroenteritis. The Bangalore water supply and Sewerage Board thinks it is water bought by residents from the private water tankers that is the cause but then seems to change its mind.

What exactly is a Persian wheel? Also known as Rahat (in Urdu), it's a simple water lifting device, where a number of small pots are attached to a long chain. Two gear wheels make up the system and as the first one is revolved, the pots each dip and swallow water from the well and soon after pours itself out to a metallic shaft which in turns empties into an intricate network of troughs that distributes water adequately through the cropped area. It is believed that the technology originated in Egypt and as world shrunk through extensive trading, it spread to India and China.

Its an obviously useful thing for India Water Portal to have a photo repository with a free-use-with-acknowledgement license of some sort. But we have not had the opportunity to think through all the details on this. What is the best way to create this (Google Picasa, Flickr or some other tool) ? What are the details of the copyright that we would use. How would users upload their photos ?

RAINWATER HARVESTING A NEW CONCEPT TO UTILIZE RAINWATER AND SECURE THE FUTURE [BASED ON IS:1172-1993 & IS:3370-1965 (PARTS I & II)] by Er. Kollegal. K. Meghashyam

The only book published so far in India covering the following

Treating the subject Rainwater Harvesting in A Comprehensive Manner

Finally, another post to add to the "Humor" category of the blog. There is not enough of it in the water sector !

The Bagmati Calling : I am reporting from the south bank of the Bagmati near Benipur in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar.