Indore bags India's cleanest city tag

Swachh Survekshan 2018: Indore, Bhopal and Chandigarh emerge as India's top three clean cities

Indore emerged as India’s cleanest city in the latest edition of the Swachh Survekshan carried out by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission. Bhopal and Chandigarh secured the second and third spots overall respectively. Vijayawada was labelled India's cleanest big city while Nagpur stole the limelight for innovation and best practices. Among the states, Jharkhand was chosen as the best-performing one, followed by Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

Prime Minister Modi inaugurates 330MW Kishanganga hydropower project in Kashmir 

The strategically important 330 MW Kishanganga hydropower project on one of the tributaries of river Jhelum was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Pakistan, however, alleges that the project would affect its Neelum-Jhelum project constructed downstream and that the Indian effort is in violation of the Indus Water Treaty. Pakistan has informed that it would discuss India’s treaty violation with the president of the World Bank.  

IISER, Kolkata comes up with a kit to help detect and remove arsenic from potable water

The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata has made accurate detection of arsenic in potable water and its removal possible with a newly developed kit. The kit is designed to detect and remove as less as 0.02 mg arsenic from a litre of water. Though the permissible limit of arsenic in groundwater is 0.01 mg per litre, according to the WHO, in India, the permissible limit it is set at 0.05 mg as water drawn from deep tube wells is consumed by many. 

MoEFCC forms teams to clean 24 polluted beaches and 24 riverfronts across the country

Ahead of the World Environment Day on June 5, the Union Environment Ministry has committed to the cleaning of 24 beaches and 24 polluted riverfronts across the country. The clean up will be done by teams comprising government officials, students and local communities in the chosen regions. A sum of Rs 10 lakh has been earmarked for every site under the programme. The clean-up activities that commenced on May 15 will run up to June 5.

CWC study reveals presence of toxic heavy metals beyond permissible limit in 42 rivers

A research conducted by the Central Water Commission reveals the presence of a minimum of two toxic heavy metals beyond the permissible limits in 42 Indian rivers. Five heavy metals including chromium and lead were noticed in the Ganga while rivers Arkavathi, Rapti and Sabarmati had very high concentrations of four pollutants. Water samples collected across summer, winter and monsoon seasons from 16 river basins pointed to the presence of huge amounts of lead in 69 rivers. 

This is a roundup of important news published between May 15 and 21, 2018. Also, read policy matters this week.