Invitation: Orissa River Conference in Sambalpur, April 18 - 20,2009, Water Initiatives Orissa

The Orissa River Conference is being held from April 18 - 20, 2009, Sambalpur, Odisha.

India River Network (IRN) and Water Initiatives Orissa (WIO) invite you to a three day long Orissa River Conference. Rivers are in stress and dying. Odisha is no exception. All of its rivers including major rivers Mahanadi, Brahmani are dying of quantitative and qualitative degradation and decrease. Water salinity in the lower Brahmani has gone up as river flow has almost stopped in crucial summer months. Water flow in the Mahanadi River too is decreasing at a rapid rate. A comparison between second half of the post Hirakud dam period with the first half shows about 15 percent of decrease in average annual flow. Other rivers like Baitarani, Subarnarekha, Vanshadhara, Rushikulya and Nagabali etc. are also suffering the same fate. The problems are manifold. Unsustainable growth of population; industrialization led pollution; climate change and many other problems have virtually wrecked havoc on the fate of the rivers. The rivers are dying and are surely spelling doom for the civilizations around them. Time has come that rivers are recognized as life and not merely as a resource that's open for exploitation. This conference will debate and deliberate on the state of rivers in Odisha. It will also chalk out an action plan from both action and advocacy perspectives to work towards giving Odisha Rivers a life, yet again! The invitees include local activists, civil society, academia, researchers and media. We are aware of your active involvement in action against degradation of rivers/water conservation and management/issues related to water. If you are interested on the state of Orissa rivers and/or are interested to contribute to this cause, we would like to invite you to the workshop. If in case you have researched on any river or issues around rivers in Orissa and would like to contribute a paper, please let us know and send in an abstract and we shall get back to you with further details. We look forward to your positive response and participation. Let us give rivers a chance to live !! With thanks and regards, Sincerely, Prof. Arttabandhu Mishra Chairperson, Indian River Network And Ranjan K Panda Convenor, Water Initiatives Orissa C/o: MASS, Dhanupali, Sambalpur , 768 005, Odisha, INDIA Tel: 0663-2540043/2540067 Cell: 09437050103 (Ranjan), 09438488563(Bimal Pandia) About the organizers Water Initiatives Orissa (WIO) is a broad based network working around water and climate change in the state of Odisha for about a decade now. WIO is housed at MASS, one of the active and leading organizations in Odisha, with a two decade of experience, working on issues around natural resources. Initiating its action and research around water harvesting, WIO has now spread into larger issues on water including dams, rivers, coastal waters, so on and so forth. Its bi-monthly publication water 'Panira Dagara' is the first of its kind in Odisha to spread awareness and advocacy issues related to water. WIO has been actively involved with several national and international networks on water including those on rivers. Indian River Network (IRN) is based at the Peaceful Society; Goa was formed in 1998 and raised the collective concern about protection and conservation of rivers and water bodies. IRN has been organizing several national, state and regional level programmes and supporting activists and organizations working around rivers since its inception.