Rainfall and other forms of Precipitation

Government of Nepal has asked the Government of India to compensate its citizens badly affected by embankments and other flood control measures taken on river Gandak. Will this not lead to a flood of demands for compensation by the victims of similar problems in other river basins like the Bagmati, the Kamala and the Kosi?

This document on the management of drought during 2009 published by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation of the Ministry of Agriculture presents the deficiency and erratic behavior of rainfall, impact of drought, mitigation efforts initiated and their results. During the deficient and erratic rainfall of South-West monsoon 2009, fourteen States declared drought/ drought like situation/ scarcity in 338 districts of the country.

The News Roundup over the last two weeks indicates reports of heavy rainfall in the state of Tamil Nadu, with deaths and destruction due to flooding, destruction of crops due to excessive rainfall. The news also reports of droughts in Orissa and rains in Maharashtra leading to destruction of crops.

Rainfall

• Rain continues to batter Tamil Nadu
• Rain plays havoc in three districts in Tamil Nadu
• Rain hits lignite mining in Tamil Nadu
• Continuing rain fury claims more lives in Tamil Nadu
• Rains continue to batter Puduchery, Karaikal in Tamil Nadu
• Rains lash Madurai: 10 dead, 73 houses damaged
• Five die in rain-related incidents in Tamil Nadu

Lake Tahoe, seen here from Emerald Bay, was one of the primary validation sites for the global lake study. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Article and Image Courtesy: Everything About Water

The November edition of Droplets e-newsletter published by the Everything About Water had the following highlights:

• India: The country facing a water deficit of 50% by 2030
• India: New national water policy in pipeline
• Rajasthan: Rs. 149.59 crore plant to clean river waters
• Madhya Pradesh: State to sign 6 MoUs for water projects
• Tamil Nadu: Habitat for Humanity brings clean drinking water
• Mumbai: MMRDA plans Rs. 1200 crore water conveyance system plan

In partnership with the Columbia Water Center, researchers from Punjab Agricultural University have initiated a multi-year project to implement and field-test diverse water-saving technologies, practices and policies aimed at reducing agricultural water use in the state of Punjab, particularly among rice farmers. In last year’s trial, the most successful project involved the installation of inexpensive tensiometers in the fields of over 500 farmers, yielding water savings of 30-35 percent.

Concurrently with the tensiometer trials, the team also recruited a smaller number of farmers to adopt a different way of cultivating rice altogether: Direct seeding of rice.

In traditional rice cultivation, rice is sprouted in a nursery; sprouted seedlings are then transplanted into standing water. With direct seeding, rice seed is sown and sprouted directly into the field, eliminating the laborious process of planting seedlings by hand and greatly reducing the crop’s water requirements.

Conventional rice production requires standing water

Sanitation/Wastewater

• India tops the list of nations lacking toilets
• India hunts for a Rural Toilet Design, 1000 Euros up for grabs
• 82% of rural India deprived of three basic necessities of life — tapped drinking water, electricity connection and sanitation
• There are 700 million cell phone connections in India, but only half this number of Indians have access to private toilets, says a UN study

Water Governance in Motion: Towards Socially and Environmentally Sustainable Water Laws focuses on the work undertaken by International Environmental Law Research Centre IELRC on water law reforms in India. It seeks to provide a broader understanding of the conceptual framework informing existing water law and ongoing reforms.

Climate Change

• India to release climate change report on Tuesday

 Environment

• India proposes a new emission check system
• Call for declaring soil as national resource: Soil Conservation Society of India