Guest Post: Text by Amitangshu Acharya, Photographs by Ayan Ghosh

Kachchh – a brilliant halfway between a turmeric yellow Rajasthan and the emerald green Sahyadris – offers an upside down version of life. It tells you that seeds of life and civilisation are often hidden beneath the sands of time in inhospitable terrains.

Guest Post by Shashank Srinivasan

High altitude wetlands in the Indian Himalayas are crucial to the water security of downstream communities. They buffer the flow of glacial meltwater to sustain river flow in the dry season, ensuring that human settlements have access to water when they need it most.

High altitude wetlands are also reservoirs of biodiversity and contribute local livelihood opportunities. Identifying these wetlands and demarcating areas for their protection is thus crucial to any wetland management plan.

In this poster, a method of using topographic data obtained by remote sensing techniques, to identify the catchment areas of these wetlands has been described.

The author suggests that the protection of these catchment areas will ensure the survival of these wetlands, as well as of the communities that depend on them.

This report of the Standing Committee on Water Resources deals with the action taken by the Government on the recommendations and observations contained in their Eleventh Report on “Inter Linking of Rivers” which was presented to Lok Sabha in October 2008.

This report by MoEF regarding the environmental impact of Phata-Byung & Singoli-Bhatwari hydro power projects on the river Mandakini deals with the additional safeguards and proper monitoring & supervision to help protect the environment in these project areas. It says that since a fairly large portion of the works has been taken up it may not be worth to abandon the project. It has proposed certain remedial measures to mitigate the damage if caused to the environment and local villagers. 

The Phata-Byung and Singoli-Bhatwari hydro power projects, are Run of the River (RoR) projects on the river Mandakini. The series of RoR projects proposed and under construction as a part of cascade development are to generate electrical energy which is considered to be clean power as it is non-polluting and renewable in nature.

This has resulted in a depletion of groundwater resources. There is a scarcity of drinking water too, in the region.

Organizer: Alva Group of Institutions

Venue: Alva’s Health Center, Mijar, Moodabidri, Karnataka

Description:

On behest of the movement, of which you have been an integral part, the Ministry of Environment & Forests had set-up a Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel to pave way for setting up the Western Ghats Environment Authority. The panel has been engaged in public consultations over past couple of months giving us a chance to collectively review its functioning as well.

This draft discussion paper by the Department of Drinking Water Supply (Ministry of Rural Development) deals with the preparation of strategic plan for rural drinking water sector in India. The Government of India introduced the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) in 1972–73 to support States and UTs with financial and technical assistance to implement drinking water supply schemes in order to accelerate the pace of coverage across rural India.

John Thompson works on power, policy and sustainability issues in food and agriculture, water resource management and rural development. He is a STEPS Centre member, IDS Fellow and joint Co-ordinator of the Future Agricultures Consortium. He presents two crucial agricultural water issues to take priority on World Water Day.

Despite the pre-Cancun Wikileaks revelation of U.S. strong-arm tactics at the Copenhagen summit, and U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern's remarks about "climate bribery", wherein he said countries asking for aid were in no position to accuse the U.S. of bribery; it is largely perceived that the Cancun Climate Meet has picked up the lost momentum of Copenhagen.

193 nations met at Cancun to debate on how to move forward on the climate change adaptation process and drafted the Cancun Agreement.