India

This report is a compilation of the hydrological news in the print media in the country for the year 2000. The report is an attempt to put forth diverse hydrologic information and events reflecting the problems and indicate solutions for hydrologists, planners and water resource managers in particular. National newspapers like Hindustan Times, Indian Express and Hindu have been referred to, for tracking the Indian hydrological events due to flood, drought, quality, demand supply and availability.

The report details out the status of landfill and waste disposal technologies in India & abroad and reviews the scientific studies undertaken to support its design for long-lasting performance. Hydrological considerations play a major role in the selection of landfill sites and in the design and performance of landfills for hazardous waste management. A landfill is a form of a biochemical reactor where the municipal solid waste (MSW) comes into contact with moisture, a catalyst, and gets decomposed into solid waste, gases and liquid contaminants (leachate) resulting in the release of heat. The design of the control and recovery systems requires the estimation of amount and composition of gas and leachate accurately, as also the changes in these with time. Lysimeters are used to simulate the landfill performance.

The report presents a review of several aspects of non-point source of pollution, like extent and effects of pollution in surface and groundwater bodies, pollution control, monitoring, modeling and management options. Non-point source pollution originates from diffuse land areas that contribute pollutants to surface and groundwater bodies. Sediments, nutrients and pesticides are transported from croplands either in a dissolved form in runoff or through adsorption onto eroded soil particles. Apart from this it can also enter groundwater through leaching.  

The report presents a literature review on the status of research related to saltwater intrusion and groundwater management in coastal and deltaic environments in the east coast of South India. The area is typically characterized by highly productive and alluvial aquifers and high use of both surface as well as groundwater. Seawater intrusion into the freshwater aquifers is extensive due to increased pumpages.

A quantitative understanding of the patterns of movement and mixing between freshwater and saline water and the factors that influence these processes is stressed in the report. It presents the mechanics of saltwater intrusion through studies by Ghyben and Herzberg and later on by Hubbert. A comprehensive review of studies by Reilly and Goodman relating to saltwater intrusion is discussed. Later advances in understanding saltwater-freshwater relationship through numerical models like sharp interface model and miscible flow model are described.

The study develops regional flood frequency relationship and flood formulae based on recently developed efficient techniques of flood frequency analysis to estimate floods of desired return periods for small to moderate size gauged and ungauged catchments of the middle Ganga plains (sub-zone 1F) encompassing parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. A regional flood formula has been developed by coupling the L-moment based regional flood frequency relationship with the regional relationship between mean annual peak flood and the catchment area.

The study models the variations in water quality parameters of Yamuna river by means of stochastic approach using Central Water Commission’s monthly data for the period 1990-95 and makes projections for the year 1996. The results obtained for different water quality variables have been compared with the observed values and were found to be satisfactory. 

Often groundwater pumping is undertaken assuming the resource to be infinite. This myth has been shattered in the last few decades with increasing scarcity and deterioration in terms of quality as a consequence of over-exploitation and mismanagement of this resource to meet competing demands for drinking water and other needs in urban cities. However, managing groundwater is not an easy task.

Small and big dams and big embankments were constructed in this region, without understanding the nature of the rivers which have always changed course or overshot their banks. Assuming however, that the river will not change course, the Government adopted a skewed development program - that of building embankments to contain the river.

The Dams, Rivers and People issue for Apr-May 2010 is out. The state government policies, programmes and practices in water resources and highlights the need to bring focus of water & agriculture policies onto rainfed Farming. It is likely to yeild better economic, hydrologic, sustainable, equitable and climate friendly results and foodgrains production as per our future demands.

Ek Phirangi Raja

In this essay, Romesh Bedi recounts the true story of Frederick E Wilson, a British army officer, who deserted the army after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1957, escaped to the Himalayas, and settled in Harsil, a remote village in Uttarakhand on the banks of the Bhagirathi.

Wilson makes a flourishing business from the export of skins, fur, musk from the region, and rips the local deodar forest, to cash in the growing demand for wooden sleepers during the expansion of the Indian railways by the British, which were sent down to the plains through the rivers. Wilson soon acquires a lease from the Raja of Tehri-Garhwal, for his timber business and keeps the Raja happy by giving him a share of the profits, and even begins to mint his own local currency, because of which locals start calling him Raja.