Rivers

Since time immemorial water has been a common property and in many Indian communities there is deep reverence for flowing water. Using the flow of water for community benefit  is considered an act of great merit and  its misuse and contamination, a sin. In temples, tanks were constructed for rituals and also as a way to earn money for the temple.

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This publication by the Central Water Commission presents data on Major and Medium Irrigation and Multipurpose projects, Minor Irrigation projects, Command Area Development scheme as available in the Finance A

Of these, as many as 36 reservoirs are having significant hydro-power benefits with installed capacities of more than 60MW each. The combined live storage in these 81 reservoirs at the beginning of monsoon, i.e. June 1, 2010 was 14% of their designed capacity and stood at 60% of designed capacity as on January 27, 2011. The present storage is 137% of last year’s storage and 145% of last 10 years average storage during the same period. Out of these 81 reservoirs there are presently 15 reservoirs where this year’s storage is less than 80 % of the average of previous 10 years and in remaining 66 reservoirs the storage is more than 80% of the average of previous 10 years.

On the occasion of the World Wetlands Day 2011, while we welcome the notification of Wetland (Conservation and Management) rules 2010 by the Union Ministry of Env

The second international symposium on the management of large rivers for fisheries was held by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and Mekong River Commission on 11 - 14 February 2003 in Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia. It had three primary objectives: (a) To provide a forum to review and synthesise the latest information on large rivers; (b) To raise the political, public and scientific awareness of the importance of river systems, the living aquatic resources they support and the people that depend on them; and (c) To contribute to better management, conservation and restoration of the living aquatic resources of large rivers.

The symposium was organised in six sessions:

Session 1: Status of rivers
Session 2: Value of river fisheries
Session 3: Fisheries ecology and conservation
Session 4: Management of river fisheries
Session 5: Statistics and information
Session 6: Synthesis

 It came up with the following recommendations for action -

• Improve the valuation of living river resources in order to contribute to equitable and sustainable management of fishery resources and properly place the fishery in the context of the other uses of rivers.
• Direct greater effort to better understanding the social and economic aspects of fisheries to support policy and management priorities; livelihood approaches will be a valuable tool.
• Communicate and engage with environment and water resources managers within the context of multi-use of water in order to accurately assess impacts and to sustain the benefits of river fisheries in an equitable manner.
• Develop processes that facilitate the users and beneficiaries of the fishery resource to assume greater control of its management.
• Establish appropriate mechanisms at national and basin level to enable negotiation for the needs of communities dependent upon the living aquatic resources. In particular further regulations need to be elaborated to protect general ecosystem function and provide for environmental flows.
• Use instruments such as the freshwater eco-regions approach, the Ramsar Convention and the guidelines for water allocation suggested by the World Commission on Dams, to enhance planning for conservation and sustainable use of river habitats.
• Incorporate ecological flow requirements of river-floodplain systems into development plans and impact assessments that affect river flows, taking into account the seasonality of the system and the environmental cues needed by the fish for migration and reproduction.
• Rehabilitate degraded ecosystems wherever possible. Prioritize schemes that ensure connectivity and protection of critical habitats.

In his last book, 'Economics of hydropower' Dr. jhunjhunwala comes to a conclusion that we have neglected some very important costs of hydropower, while overestimating its benefit.

This paper explores Surangas, which are an ancient water system based on tunnels bored horizontally on the slopes of hills to get drinking water. These structures are mainly found in the laterite soils of Dakshina Kannada region and some parts of Kerala and Goa.

This paper uses secondary data to showcase the water bodies that were built in the Vijayanagar Empire. The author states that there were 88 such water bodies and these were used for irrigation purposes and also for consumption.

Rivers, streams and lakes are the vital link in the water cycle that ensure that life as we know it can continue to flourish on earth. Unfortunately, as Dr Rajendra Singh points out, there is no river in India that has been spared from encroachment and pollution. The massive Ganga Action Plan has failed to clean the Ganges.