Demand and Consumption

"The miracle of rain : Let the earth overflow"

Video courtesy: VideoVolunteers

Organizer: Department of Civil Engineering, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar

Venue: Department of Civil, Engineering, Annamalai University

Description:
Water is a vital natural resource essential for life and a precious national asset. It is a scarce resource which has to be planned, developed, conserved and managed on an integrated and environmentally sound basis; keeping in view the socio-economic aspects and needs of mankind. It is one of the most challenging tasks to ensure adequate water and food to our present and future generations. The availability of water in our country is highly variable both in space and time. Climate change, failure of monsoons, population explosion, urbanization, rising demands and anthropogenic factors lead to significant water stress. Agriculture is the mainstay of Indian economy and an assured irrigation water supply is of utmost importance for food security. Hence water resources are to be managed judiciously to guarantee adequate supplies of dependable quantity and quality, which is of major concern today.

Accordingly, the book is written as a technical manual that remains accessible to people seeking to gain necessary expertise in the planning, design, installation and maintenance of lift irrigation systems (LIS). 

It describes the efforts undertaken by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board to launch a programme to monitor the water quality of some of the lakes in Bangalore so as to focus the attention of concerned governmental organisations to take up remedial measures to safe guard the water bodies of the "Garden City". 

The sources of pollution in lakes are mainly identified as:

This interactive session with NGOs working on water and river issues was held in continuation of the “Living rivers, dying rivers” series at the request of AusAid. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Ramaswamy R. Iyer, Honorary Professor, Centre for Policy Research and an author of books and articles on water while the lead speaker Dr.

It aimed to set the challenges faced by urban planners in the current economic, socio-political, and ecological landscape. This would enable informed and negotiated choices on urban development. The stated objectives of the conference are as follows:

This paper begins with the slow rate of progress in achieving the millennium development goals of environmental sustainability, especially in the areas of water and sanitation. This is due to the disconnect between the global rhetoric (which often focuses on water as an economic good) and social realities (such as the cultural attitudes towards water)

It also presents the status of utilisation of groundwater in Karnataka as on March 2009, both on watershed (sub catchment) and taluk wise areas having 2008-2009 as the base year. The methodology is improved as the estimations are carried out on watershed basis for both command and non command separately than apportioned to taluks.

The paper published in the Integral Leadership Review argues that hierarchy and bureaucracy are two of the most common features of governance systems that play a determining role in shaping the organisational culture, systemic re