Rivers

This report by National Institute of Hydrology provides a compilation of the hydrological information of seventeen different river basins of South Bihar (now Jharkhand). Hydrological modeling of a basin requires detailed hydrological information about the basin. Further, the hydrological information of a region or a basin is of immense use to water resources planners and managers. However, the hydrological information collected by different organizations are often scattered and are not in representable form.

Ariticle Courtesy: National Alliance of Peoples' Movements

Dear Saaathis,

You all must have got the word by now ...Narmada is in serious crisis ...Not just the people and the environemnt, but the very project itself today...And unjust politics is also at its peak again ...This is the last and critical leg of the SSP battle...

Thousands of us are to embark on an indefinite mass action of Narmada from April 11th and sit before the Narmada Control Authority from the 13th at Indore. The situation is very serious and highly politicized, since even as there are 2 lakh adiavasis, farmers, fish workers, labourers yet to be rehabilitated in the submergence area, only corruption has increased ten-fold and gross environmental non-compliance has been exposed by the latest Devender Pandey Committee.

A bi-monthly newsletter - Dams, Rivers & People: February / March 2010 issue of the newsletter

Hihghlights

• Kerala’s initiative to desilt reservoirs: the Euphoria & the Concerns     
• Book Review: Why are the rivers source of conflicts?
• Gujarat makes up stories about Sardar Sarovar Project
• Only 13-17% water losses in Mumbai, Chennai, why not Delhi?
• World Bank’s Double speak on Large Hydro: Renewable or not? 
• Pakistan: Glacial lake dam threatens Hunza Valley

SANDRP website

When the foundation stone for the Kosi embankment was laid on January 14, 1955, near Nirmali in Saharsa district in Bihar, euphoric people shouted, Aadhi roti khayenge, Kosi bandh banayenge (we will eat only half a chapati but we will surely build the embankment), writes the prolific engineer and activist Dinesh Mishra in his book, “ Trapped! Between the Devil and the Deep Waters.” No one really paid any attention to the protests and the fears of the people who would live with these embankments and what would happen to their lives.

BARRAGES AS A BETTER ALTERNATIVE  TO POLAVARAM DAM  POJECT

(Replies to Discussion Report of Advisory Committee on alternate proposals made for

Polavaram project by Sri.T.Hanumantha Rao, former Engineer-in-Chief, AP State)

This presentation describes the work of WaterAid and Haritika in organising drinking water security through Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) approaches, in Dhasan river sub-basin (part of Bharar river basin), Nowgon block, Chattarpur district of Madhya Pradesh.

THE WELLS of Kalawad village in Junagadh district, Gujarat brim with water. The reason — construction of check dams by a peasant, Mr.

A one-day “Action plan workshop for the rejuvenation and sustenance of Arkavathi river basin”, was organised on 25th July 2009, by the Global Academy of Technology and Geological Society of India at Bangalore, to discuss the future of the dying Arkavathi river and Bangalore's precarious water situation, and to develop concurrent implementable action plans to address the problem. The Arkavathi is a tributary of the river Kaveri, originating in Nandi Hills in Chikkaballapur district, that provides about 20% of the total water requirements of Bangalore, with Kaveri providing the remaining 80%.

Entry 56 of List I of Seventh Schedule provides that "Regulation and development of inter-State rivers and river valleys to the extent to which such regulation and development under the control of the Union is declared by Parliament by law to be expedient in the public interest".

Original document can be viewed here on the Ministry of Water Resources website

Ground Report India

I recall the day two months before, when I had the opportunity to attend a seminar at the outskirt of Delhi. The hot topics, to be bothered and discussed in the gathering was: “Pollution of River Ganga & its Control and Preservation” (i.e. Ganga ka Pradushan … Ganga Bachao”).

And so, so early reached at the venue ignoring the shivering cold weather. However, it happened so, probably due to the chilly cold situations, that VIPs- honourable guests and invited respected audience reached one by one…. at last to conclude it to be ‘a late affair’!