Ecology and Environment

A sharing workshop on groundwater organised by ACWADAM (Advanced Center for Water Development and Management) in Pune on 21/22nd May 2009 saw some very good presentations being made. Dr Tushaar's Shah's keynote speech provided an amazing big picture of groundwater use in agriculture. The presentation can be viewed on slideshare and the entire speech is available on YouTube in 4 parts.

Image and Content Courtesy:ESG India This workshop for teachers organized at the ESG Office, from 9th, to11th July 2009will provide the opportunity to find new skills and share what has worked and what needs to change. This is a workshop for enthusiastic teachers, and coordinators and facilitators of education programmes with a passion for educating and motivating kids. It aims to help young professionals develop their skills and knowledge so they can inspire children and others more effectively.

The purpose of the workshop is to demonstrate to the teachers and educators how the outdoors can be utilized to introduce, strengthen, and emphasize concepts of the environmental education curriculum. Through classroom sessions, games and field studies, we will explore the curriculum, teaching techniques, and classroom activities that can help kids learn about the wonders of nature and their environment. During the workshop we will help identify some simple methods and techniques for teaching environmental education in the outdoors and the workshop will also familiarize the participants with some of the environmental issues of Bengaluru.

Image and Content Courtesy: Water Alternatives (WaA)

Report of steering committee on drinking water supply and sanitation for tenth five year plan

The ninth compendium of environment statistics 2007, brought out by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), provides data on five core parameters - land/soil, water, bio-diversity, atmosphere and human settlements. These statistics can be used to understand various aspects of the environment, and to explain the impact of economic activities on sustainable development as a whole and the environment in particular.

This site by the Ministry of Environment and Forests provides the list of legislations on environment, forests, and wildlife

Water quality standard sectiion

The water quality standards section on the site of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), contains data on limits/standards of various indicative water quality parameters, such as coliform, pH, dissolved solids, bod etc, for each designated water use (drinking, bathing etc).

Read the standards and also view this file for water quality and drinking water quality standards from www.groundwatertnpwd.org.in

Monitoring of Indian National Aquatic Resource: This article on the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) website, contains graphs indicating the water-source wise national water quality monitoring network data, water quality trend across different parameters (bod, coliform etc), and water quality trend (measured in terms of bod) in various rivers of India.

View the graphs

Environmental standards section

The environmental standards section of the Central Pollution Control Board website, contains more than 40 industry–specific effluent standards, ranging from battery manufacturing to thermal power plants.
Read the industry–specific standards
Under the same section, read through some of the more recently–notified industry– specific standards and some proposed industry–specific standards here
The CPCB is a national body formed to promote cleanliness of streams and wells in the country by prevention, control and abatement of water pollution, and to improve the quality of air and to prevent, control or abate air pollution in the country.
For more info, click here

17 most polluting industries in India

This site provides information on the list of 17 most polluting industries, identified by the Central Pollution Control Board (Ministry of Environment and Forests). The site provides information on the following sections:

Forwarded to the Portal by: Birke Otto

Image and Content Courtesy: Water Integrity Network 

The Water Integrity Network is seeking information on initiatives addressing corruption related to water and climate change for the Water Integrity Case Information Sheet series.

Case studies should address questions such as 

What obstacles are rendering water-related climate change adaptation strategies inadequate or inequitable?; What types of initiatives have been put in place to avoid or address climate-related water integrity issues (regulation, policy, monitoring, advocacy, project design, etc.)?; How do local, national, and international groups and organisations tackle such problems?; and What other special problems is climate change implicating for water integrity?

The deadline is 1 June 2009.

Forwarded to the Portal by: Himanshu Thakkar, SANDRP

Submission Sent to Prime Minister, DJB, Ministry of Water Resources & HP Govt.

A memorandum demanding the scrapping of the proposed Renuka Dam Project in Sirmaur, Himachal Pradesh was sent to the Prime Minister, Union Minister of Water Resources, the Delhi Jal Board, the Central Water Commission and the Ministry of Social Justice today by concerned environment groups as well as representatives of the dam affected communities. The 5 page detailed submission has made this demand on three basic grounds - technical/conceptual issues, environment implications and the social impacts of the project. Attacking the very root and concept of the project the memorandum highlights the point that the agreement that was signed in May 1994 is no longer valid, as per the opinion of the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, since Rajasthan, one of the parties, did not sign the agreement. The Delhi Jal Board has admitted in response to an RTI application that no options assessment has been done to arrive at the least cost option before taking up the Renuka dam proposal. Without such an assessment, taking up a proposal like the Renuka dam would be completely wrong and inappropriate use of public resources. Moreover, several Studies have proved that Delhi itself is thirsty not because there is shortage of water but actually due to mismanagement and misappropriation of water. According to the Performance Audit report of the Delhi Jal Board for 2008, Delhi has distribution losses of 40 per cent of total water supply which is abnormal and significantly higher than the acceptable norms of 15 per cent prescribed by the Ministry of Urban Development.