Political

The Central Pollution Control Board has invited submission of book in Hindi on the subject of Pollution Control and Environmental Policies. The idea is to encourage original writing in Hindi. The following themes have been suggested for bringing forth the writings – Water and Air Pollution, Environmental Planning and Management, Noise Pollution, Solid waste Management, Environmental Monitoring (Auditing), Environmental Law, Environmental Impact Assessment,  Biotechnology, Climate Change and Global Warming. Awards will be given for selected entries.

CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), established in 1958 with its headquarters at Nagpur and at present having five Zonal Laboratories across the country, is one of the constituent Institutes of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), a premier multi-disciplinary R&D organization in India which is an autonomous body of the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research under the aegis of the Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India.

It’s May already and the advent of one of India’s most awaited natural event the monsoon is nigh. This year according to early reports it may be in the Andaman’s by the 12th of May itself and may arrive in Kerala earlier than June 1st its usual arrival date.

While the city is getting ready cleaning up its storm-water drains and sewerage networks other measures are equally crucial. The de-silting of the various tanks in the city is a must as well as the cleaning up of the channels leading up to them. The overflow weirs and the ‘Rajakaluves’ the channels linking one tank to the other, need to be dredged and de-silted too.

You must have heard of the meteorological department’s monsoon forecast. It promises to be a near normal monsoon season from June-September with rains expected to be 98 per cent of the long period average with a 5 per cent variation. Sounds good.

 Soil respiration is a major process affecting the global carbon cycle and nutrient flux in the terrestrial ecosystem. It is the major pathway for exchange of gases from soil to atmosphere, influencing atmospheric temperature and ultimately contributing to global warming.

This report by Price Waterhouse Coopers India Limited for the Second Annual India Water Conference in April 2011 presents its view on urban water reforms for the next decade. India is still at an early stage of the urbanisation process and will witness exponential growth in many of its cities over the next few decades. By 2030 the urban population is expected to reach more than 590 million. This will put enormous pressure on all existing resources, especially water. Despite sufficient availability of raw water, many of its cities struggle to provide more than a few hours of water supply.

Improving water availability in the cities requires addressing complex policy, institutional and funding challenges. The core of the new approach will include instituting a new era of greater accountability and a performance-driven approach. Service delivery to urban poor has to be an integral part of this approach to bring about greater inclusiveness.

Recent experience with Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP) in urban water supply shows that with a customer focused approach and demonstration of clear benefits, there will be greater political and public acceptability of private participation. At the same time, fiscal framework at the local level has to be considerably strengthened before attempting wide scale replication of PPP. 

This document describes the Goa Sewerage System and Sanitation Services Management Act and includes:

How exactly do contaminants spread underground? How much urban stress can an aquifer withstand?

With the need for clean fresh water growing daily, finding answers to those questions is a top priority for researchers at G360, the new Centre for Applied Groundwater Research at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.

Organizer: Sambodhi Research & Management Institute

Venue: Sambodhi Research & Management Institute, New Delhi

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