Sambalpur

The Orissa River Conference is being held from April 18 - 20, 2009, Sambalpur, Odisha.

India River Network (IRN) and Water Initiatives Orissa (WIO) invite you to a three day long Orissa River Conference. Rivers are in stress and dying. Odisha is no exception. All of its rivers including major rivers Mahanadi, Brahmani are dying of quantitative and qualitative degradation and decrease. Water salinity in the lower Brahmani has gone up as river flow has almost stopped in crucial summer months. Water flow in the Mahanadi River too is decreasing at a rapid rate. A comparison between second half of the post Hirakud dam period with the first half shows about 15 percent of decrease in average annual flow. Other rivers like Baitarani, Subarnarekha, Vanshadhara, Rushikulya and Nagabali etc. are also suffering the same fate. The problems are manifold. Unsustainable growth of population; industrialization led pollution; climate change and many other problems have virtually wrecked havoc on the fate of the rivers. The rivers are dying and are surely spelling doom for the civilizations around them.