Political

It warns that groundwater quantity as well as quality are the two major problems that the country has been facing.

The rate of withdrawal of groundwater has reached “unsafe” levels in 31% of the districts, covering 33% of the land area and 35% of the population. The situation has dramatically worsened within a short span of nine years, between the assessments done in 1995 and 2004.

Taking the quantitative and qualitative aspects together, data indicates that a total of 347 districts (59% of all districts in India) are vulnerable in terms of safe drinking water in India. This is a matter of serious concern, requiring a new approach.

Organizer: Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi

Venue: Indian Bank Management Academy for Growth & Excellence, Chennai

Organiser: Institution of Public Health Engineers, India

Venue: Hotel The New Marrion, Bhubaneswar, Orissa

It was the kick-off event of an ambitious project to find solutions to the groundwater crisis in Gujarat, funded by the PepsiCo Foundation. More details of the project will follow this overview post.

Gujarat and the Mehsana region, India Source: Columbia Water Center

Sri Lanka’s government stated that the death toll from flooding had risen to 13, and officials were arranging food drops to hardest-hit areas in the east.

This collection of CBA field activities began as a resource for online CBA students. However, as it grew, we decided that it was important to make it more broadly available to CBA development practitioners worldwide. The activities are organized in the following framework.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is implementing a National Programme on Solar Water Heating aimed at peak shaving, conservation of electricity and fossil fuels and providing a clean, non-polluting solution for water heating in housing, institutional, commercial and industrial sectors.  About 4 million sqm. of collector area has so far been installed in the country.  A target of 5 million sqm. of collector area has been set for the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12).  The web-site of the Ministry www.mnre.gov.in may be visited for information about the National Solar Water Heating Programme and the Guidelines for Off-Grid and Decentralized Solar Applications under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). 

Organizer: Bhoomi Network for Sustainable Living

Venue: St. John's Auditorium, Koramangala, Bangalore

How SGWISS could support the Rainwater Harvesting? 

The main source of sweet water is Rain, but the water available from the rain is not regular and uniformly spread throughout year. So the rainwater could be stored by any method in rain. When the rainwater is stored on the surface but there would not be sufficient capacities of structures developed for the rainwater harvesting. Little quantity of the rainwater is recharged in the subsurface and underground.

The 24^th National Convention of Institution of Public Health Engineers (India) on the theme “Water & Sanitation Utility Services in India and their health implications” will be organised by IPHE(I), Regional Centre, Bhubaneswar during 12^th -13^th  February,2011.