It looked unreal then! It appeared a little relevant afterwards. Centuries later it made sense. And only in the recent times has the intensity and appropriateness of Leonardo Da Vinci's observation that water is the driver of nature, struck us!
His understanding of the importance of water to the society and nature, was an observation out of intense observation and careful analysis of the fine dynamics between man and the environment. Much of it has been pursued in a scientific manner only recently!
It is said, what gets measured gets done. The water crisis across most parts of the world needs to be tackled with this quantifying approach. In 1984, CGIAR constituted the International Water Management Institute to carry out multidisciplinary research on irrigation technologies, the economics of water management and water policy issues at national and international levels. As a part of the enormous Challenge program on Water and Food (CPWF) they have undertaken an intensive study of the most densely populated and extensively developed river basins of the world.
The Indus-Gangetic basin (IGB)is one such basin, which easily could be the most populous in the world as well as the most complex river basins owing to its diverse agro-climatic, social and economic conditions in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh across which this large basin spreads itself.
The researchers associated with IGB project meet tomorrow, after a year and a half, since the project's inception to present their findings, and discuss their research results. Browse through the image gallery for a view of the IGB across the four countries.
For us at India Water Portal, this is just the kind of conversations that needs to reach the stakeholders - people of the region, government agencies, civil society organizations and the research community. We bring you live, the proceedings from this workshop, and we would also be twittering all through the workshop from 10.00 am IST to 4.pm IST (your time zone) on December 2-3, 2009.
Please be sure to follow us on Twitter @indiawater and read the blog updates as we cover the discussion with the researchers and government representatives at the workshop.
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