Climate and Weather

Water for Industry

• Orissa: Jajpur and Kendrapara districts in the grip of water crisis due to indiscriminate use of water by industries in Kalinga Nagar

Climate Change/Environment

• Green India Mission (GMI) document submitted to Prime Ministers Council as a part of the country’s plan to fight climate change

Volume I is divided into six chapters and includes:

Chapter 1: Provides a brief introduction on the background of the National Water Mission in the context of the threat of climatic change and its impact on reduction in the water resources in the country.

Chapter 2: Describes the objectives or features of the National Water Mission

The  document is guided by the following principles:

Recent reports on the monsoon and the flood situation indicate that the rainfall has receded from northern India and has shifted to the south of India. Reports indicate heavy rainfall and flooding in parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Reports also indicate that India’s 16-week monsoon period has ended last week and the meteorological department has confirmed of 102% than normal rainfall. Inspite of the floods and the problems associated with it, reports also indicate positive news that the heavy rainfall has helped to recharge lakes and water bodies in different parts of India and may see a positive impact on agriculture in the coming days.

Water for Industry

• Indian farmers fight billionaire Mittal and Posco, a leading company in steel making, for water rights in Orissa

Drinking Water/Urban Water/Water Quality

• The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) loses money on half of water it supplies
• The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is paying a hefty price for supplying water to Mumbai with outstanding water supply dues upto Rs 3,065 crore
• 40% water is lost in leakages in Mumbai: The water level over the catchment area at 12.9 lakh ml, but the city still wrangling with water woes
• Poor access to safe and good quality drinking water: water contamination is an important public health concern in Bihar
• After several years of suffering, the villagers of Hebani Gram Panchayat in Mulbagal Taluk of Kolar have found a way to get safe drinking water by themselves
• 1650 water supply schemes planned for meeting the drinking water needs of people in rural areas in Madhya Pradesh
• Diarrhoea cases on the rise in Orissa
• Cholera incidence second highest in Kolkata

• The news earlier in the week still reports of flood fury in different parts of North India such as Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Hyderabad, Delhi, Agra. However, in the later part of the week, the flood situation seems to be easing in most parts of the North such as Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal except in Uttar Pradesh, especially western, where the situation still continues to be grim.

There has been growing public and policy preoccupation in recent years with potential climate impacts on water security in the wake of the worsening risk of global warming. In 1991, then–UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali pronounced that “the next war will be fought over water, not politics.” In 2001, Kofi Annan warned that “fierce competition for fresh water may well become a source of conflict and wars in the future.” And present UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon has argued that the ongoing Darfur crisis grew at least in part from desertification, ecological degradation, and a scarcity of resources, foremost among them water. Apart from this chorus of concern, many policy scholars have asserted that, as population growth and economic development raise pressures on demand and environmental pressures degrade supplies, resource scarcities could precipitate violent international conflicts, with shared rivers an especially dangerous flashpoint.

This Civil Engineering Course under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) on the broad subject of Solids, Materials and their Mechanics has been developed by Indian Institute of Technology’s and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore as a collaborative project supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Government of India) to enhance the quality of engineering education in the country, by developing curriculum based video and web courses. In these web based lectures, the authors have developed the subject in detail and in stages in a student-friendly manner.