News and Articles

Water quality status of historical Gundolav lake - Kishangarh - South Asian Journal of Tourism and Heritage
Urbanisation and population explosion has moved Gundolav from a freshwater lake to a wastewater drainage Posted on 25 Aug, 2010 09:44 AM

Gundolav Lake RajasthanThis paper published in the South Asian Journal of Tourism and Heritage describes the water quality status of Gundolav Lake in Rajasthan, which was once used for drinking water as well as for recreational activities under the tutelage of the princely state of Kishangarh. This has now become a site of wastewater disposal and facing a critical threat for its sustenance. 

Recent years have led to an increasing awareness of the importance of water bodies and  the need for conservation of water bodies, especially freshwater wetlands. The Ramsar Convention (2002) identifies wetlands as the starting point for integrated water management strategies. This is because they are the source of fresh water, maintain the health of the water course and water bodies, have the capacity to supply water to meet the human needs and are a key to future water security.

Odisha Drought Update- Aug 13-20, 2010
This initiative is an attempt to provide periodical updates on Drought Situations and related events/news with respect to Drought in Odisha. Posted on 24 Aug, 2010 03:00 PM

Odisha Water ForumWater Conflicts

 News from Odia and English (Bhubaneswar internet editions)   news papers are put together at one place to provide an appreciation of Drought in Orissa periodically.

This Drought Update is being circulated among media, decision makers – legislatures, bureaucrats etc. with an aim to catalyze informed and expeditious decisions and actions.

Environmental flows A methodology of calculation for India (Part 1)
Balancing the environmental flows with the growing population and rapid urbanisation is most essential to tackle the problem of water scarcity Posted on 24 Aug, 2010 10:07 AM

 

IWMI Abstract

In order to maintain the ecological goods and services of rivers and other hydrological regimes like wetlands, lakes, etc., environmental flow allocations (eflows) are a necessity. At the same time, water demands in India are increasing and will keep increasing and solutions like waste water treatment, pollution control, correction of leakages and wastage of water, efficient irrigation systems, efficient agricultural systems, etc., will take considerable time to evolve, even with our best efforts. So what should we do in the meantime? There are vulnerable ecological systems on the verge of collapse..How do we respond to these challenges?

Inviting public opinion on Western Ghats ecology - Ministry of Environment and Forests (Government of India)
Judging the ecological sensitivity Posted on 22 Aug, 2010 01:41 PM

Ministry of Environment and ForestsMinistry of Environment and Forests

 

 

 

 

How would we judge ecological sensitivity? Scientists view an ecologically sensitive area as an area whose ecological balance, once disturbed, is very hard to restore. Thus, steep Western slopes of Western Ghats, subject to heavy rains and winds, if deforested, are likely to be quickly stripped of soil cover and for ever lose their pristine vegetation. We do have a scientific understanding of the environmental attributes that render areas more sensitive; we also have insights into processes that have resulted in irreversible ecological damage.

Groundwater regulation under consideration for Andhra Pradesh
Alarmed at the unsustainable groundwater usage in farming and resulting enormous public distress, the AP government is working on legislation to remedy the situation. Posted on 16 Aug, 2010 05:01 PM

The legislation is likely to be in the form of an upgrade to the AP Water Land and Trees Act (WALTA).

Andhra Pradesh map

Click here for the current Act 

Attached are two working documents that are being used to frame the discussion for the new regulations.

PLEASE NOTE: These in no way represent final or official positions of the AP Government or other organisations and are not to be taken as such.

Leh cloud-burst: A first-hand account
Climate change and its impact on Leh-Ladak: an account by Linkesh Diwan Posted on 16 Aug, 2010 11:44 AM

Midnight, August 6, 2010: "Link, wake up!  Water is coming in from the roof!"  My mother and I were in Leh, Ladakh, staying at "Eco-Homestay," the house of Mr. Sonam Gyatso and family, in Lower Sankar.  The house was made in a hybrid of traditional and modern construction techniques: the main hall in the house was concrete, while rooms surrounding it were made of sun-dried mud bricks, and roofed with Poplar beams, a mesh of willow branches, and a thick pad of fine clay-like mud.  The house incorporated passive solar building techniques, such as a direct-gain room, and a Trombe wall, and had solar-powered lighting.  It had been raining since evening, and by midnight the clay roof was saturated and began to leak.  

We were in Leh for the express purpose of meeting with Helena Norberg-Hodge, the founder of the International Society for Ecology and Culture, co-founder of the International Forum on Globalization, founder of the Ladakh Ecological Development Group, and founder of the Women's Alliance, Ladakh.  We had learned of her online, seeing an article of hers in CounterCurrents.org, and watching her video "Ancient Futures."  She is the only person who has critically witnessed the "development" of Ladakh, from complete self-sufficiency in an exceedingly fragile eco-system, to the disaster under which it writhes today.  She has seen how "development" pulls people into a money economy, increases the distance between production and consumption,  brings reliance on fossil fuels (especially apparent in Leh where fuel and commodities are trucked in over a hazardous two-day journey from lower altitudes), results in urbanization and rural-urban migration, and brings psychological impoverishment to the people it is inflicted upon.  For 35 years, she has been working to bring safe, stable, and ecologically sound development to the region through her organizations.  Her work today, no longer limited to Ladakh, is focussed on spreading economic literacy among people throughout the planet, educating about the deeper impacts of globalization and today's consumer mono-culture.  Garnered from her years of observation and research, she has an important message for humanity today, which is what prompted us to go and meet her.

Dams and development: A new framework for decision-making - A World Commission on Dams report
The big fight: Are dams a necessity of urbanisation? Or, Are they destroyers of Natural resourse? Posted on 15 Aug, 2010 01:51 PM

This report by the World Commission on Dams begins by arguing that the debate about dams is a much broader issue and is important for everyone since it is a debate about the very meaning, purpose and pathways for achieving development. It is complex because the issues are not confined to the design, construction and operation of dams themselves, but include a range of social, environmental and political choices that define development.

Dams fundamentally alter rivers and the use of a natural resource, frequently entailing a reallocation of benefits from local riparian users to new groups of beneficiaries at a regional or national level. At the heart of the dams debate are fundamental issues of equity, governance, justice and power. The report argues that the main challenge lies in reconciling the competing needs between different groups of actors and provides a framework to deal with these fundamental issues in the dam debate.

Modeling of a coastal aquifer in Goa using FEFLOW – A research report by National Institute of Hydrology
Modeling sea water in Goa to evaluate increase in groundwater development Posted on 14 Aug, 2010 11:49 AM

The study by National Institute of Hydrology attempts to model seawater intrusion using FEFLOW, an interactive finite element simulation system in the coastal area of Bardez taluka in North Goa and evaluate the impact of increasing groundwater development on the phenomenon. Coastal tracts of Goa are rapidly being transformed into settlement areas and the poor water supply facilities have encouraged people to develop their own sources of water by digging or boring wells.

UN General Assembly s resolution on water and sanitation as a human right
Water and sanitation is a human right but waits to be implemented and made 'available to all' Posted on 13 Aug, 2010 05:00 PM

The recent UN General Assembly Resolution on declaring water and sanitation as human right is or can be a powerful impetus to securing universal access to water and sanitation for people everywhere. This is the most recent in a string of initiatives to advance the provision of these essential services. Beginning with the UN Decade of Water in the eighties, then the declaration of the Millennium Development Goals, and later the adoption of General Statement 15 by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in 2002 the recognition of the fundamental importance of water (and more recently sanitation) to life, health and well being has been accepted at the international level. In India, while there is no specific mention of the right to water in the Constitution, the Supreme Court in its judgement(s)has upheld this as part of the right to life. Some organizations are working to make this a fundamental right, to remove any ambiguity.

Child drinking water - Madhya Pradesh

Boy drinking water from handpump in Guna, Madhya Pradesh - Handpumps and wells are still one of the major source of drinking water in India.

Photo credits: Anil Gulati 

The neocolonial path to power - Article in the Himal Southasian
Nepal’s power sector based on capacity- building to meet the needs of its own commerce and industry is far from perfect, but it is a better long-term bet than Bhutan’s much- touted model. Posted on 13 Aug, 2010 10:15 AM

This is a translation from the Nepali of an article that first appeared in Nepal magazine on 11 July 2010. Dipak Gyawali is member of the panel of experts reviewing the Mekong River Commission’s Basin Development Plan and vice-chair of the technical committee of the UN’s World Water Assessment Programme. He was Nepal’s Minister for Water Resources during 2002-03.


 

Many Nepalis would be shocked to hear that Bhutan will face load- shedding from the coming winter. The citizens of Nepal have, after all, been told for decades that Bhutan has done a great job of developing hydroelectricity, that it has earned significant money by exporting electricity to India, and thus it has been able to achieve the highest per capita income in Southasia. Conversely, Nepal has been ridiculed for wallowing in ‘empty nationalism’ and stirring ‘needless’ controversies over the Mahakali Treaty of 1996 (for water sharing on the Mahakali River) as well as hydropower projects such as the West Seti, both of which involve export of electricity to India.