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Friends,

This being a water related portal, most of you reading this will be aware of how important is water to one. In recent days, you all might be seeing that there has been devastating floods and huge amount of destruction caused by Rain. It was really very painful for all of us to see the situation over in northern karnataka wherein people have lost almost everything - Houses and crops. For a farmer, water is everything. Without this, he cant even imagine his life.

Just imagine a farmer for whom water is something like a GOD suddenly becoming destructive. This is what has happened in many villages of northern Karnataka. Whole of Onion, sugarcane crops is completely blown away due to heavy rains.

We, a team of Volunteers from Aastha went to Ramdurga Taluk of Belgaum district to do our bit to all those who have been hit by heavy rains and floods. With the support of our Keane colleagues, we were able to collect huge amount of old clothes and donation. With the donation we received, we purachased, sarees, utensils, dhothi, towels, blankets, biscuits and with the assistance of Taluk tahsildar and local Village heads, we were able to support more than 200 families.

But, there were so many children crying out of hunger which made our hearts heavier than ever.

In the name of floods and heavy rain, it has made so many people homeless!!

 Biome Solutions, a Bangalore-based company working on sustainable architecture and buildings visited some flood affected areas in Guntur to observe the situation and see the suitability of applying "Ecological Sanitation", a new approach to sanitation. (Search on India Water Portal for "Ecological sanitation" for more information on this). Their report  after their travels can be seen below.

A point of interest is the picture of a flooded toilet. Pit toilets which are the norm in rural areas have the disadvantage that during floods the pit below the toilet (where the human waste accumulates over time) gets flooded and the toilet becomes unusable. The faecal matter can come out of the toilet pan and create a real mess which needs to be cleaned up. 

Read their report at: 

http://biomesolutions.blogspot.com/2009/10/visit-to-flood-affected-areas-in-guntur.html

Picture from https://www.thehindu.com : (https://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/14/images/2009101451490301.jpg) , drinking water being supplied by tanker in Bellary district

No fresh flood threat:

https://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/13/stories/2009101353490400.htm

Several articles cover the post-mortem of the floods, triggered by CWC statements that their warning to the government of AP was ignored

PIL filed alleging negligence on the part of AP government

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=3&contentid=20091014200910140355037187a9b2d4c

Rosaiah reacts:

https://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/14/stories/2009101450460100.htm

https://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/13/stories/2009101359070300.htm

The proceedings of the Consultation on “Emerging Water Regulatory Frameworks and Related Reforms in Water Governance in Karnataka” that was held on 02 September 2009 at Bangalore. Please do send us your comments.

In continuation with our efforts within Karnataka we have taken up two initiatives:

1. Review of the ongoing reform processes in Urban Water Governance, with a special focus on the establishment of the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Council.
2. Preparation of a general reader on water governance in the form of a booklet with a special focus on regulatory reforms in Karnataka, available both in Karnataka and Kannada (targeted at non-academic audiences such as NGO's and CSO's).

Attached is an assesment report of the status in Mahbubnagar district created by a team of civil society representatives. The report makes reference to a networking effort of civil society organisations in order to co-ordinate their efforts, and the team promises to continue to survey the situation and make periodic reports.

The following reports are from interactions organized in and around the Kosi Basin on the initiative of the Barh Mukti Abhiyan in alliance with local organizations. Reports from the interactions offer an unique window to the continued effect of the Kosi deluge and also the current local concerns in the field.

Ministry of Urban Development has approved  467 projects with  total cost of  Rs.50,340 crores under Urban Infrastructure Governance (UIG), Sub-Mission –I of  Jawaharlal Nehru National  Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) so far.

Image & Content Courtesy: SANDRP

In fifteen years from 1991-92 to 2006-07 (the latest year for which figures are available), there is been absolutely no addition to net irrigated areas by canals from Major and Medium Irrigation Projects as per official data from the Union Ministry of Agriculture, based on actual field data from states. From April 1991 to March 2007, the country has spent over Rs 130 000 crores on Major and Medium Irrigation Projects with the objective of increasing canal irrigated areas.But the official data shows that this whole expenditure of over Rs 130 000 crore has not led to addition of a single ha in the net irrigated area by canals in the country for the whole of this fifteen year period. In fact the areas irrigated by such projects have reduced by a massive 2.44 million ha during this period.

Chidambaram is the taluk headquarters, located at about 250 km south of Chennai on east coast road [ECR] in Cuddalore district of Tamilnadu. It is a coastal taluk having three panchayat unions, Keerapalayam, Melbhuvanagiri and Portonovo. Chidambaram is the most important pilgrim center of the country, and is blessed with the Lord Nataraja temple. The temple town is also known as Bhuloka Kailash and Lord Nataraja, a cosmic dancer, represent the ‘Aakash’ form which is one among the ‘Pancha Boothas’. 

Though this temple town is blessed with such historically important temple, the Nature has cursed Chidambaram area with brackish water, which is also one among the ‘Pancha Boothas’. The total aerial extent of this taluk is 649 square km and the most part of the taluk is confined between the rivers Vellar and Kollidam, which is a distributary of the river Cauvery. Some few lakhs years back the Kollidam river might have flown even north of Chidambaram town and might have receeded subsequently southwards to the present position. Due to this invasion, the entire area might have been changed as marshy lands and mangrove forests. The salinity of ground water may be attributable to the fluvio marine origin sediments, which might have been deposited during this paleo invasion by the river and due to the back water flow. Chidambaram is about 15 km west of sea shore and the mean sea level is 5.1 metres. Geologically this taluk is a sedimentary terrain and the eastern parts are covered by the quaternary unconsolidated formations of clay, black clay, soils, alluvium, silts, kankar and laterites of recent to sub recent age and the western parts by the tertiary formations of Mio-Pliocene age represented by litho units - sand stones, grits, clays with lignite seams and pebble beds.