Rainfall and other forms of Precipitation

The News Roundup over the last two weeks indicates reports of heavy rainfall in the state of Tamil Nadu, with deaths and destruction due to flooding, destruction of crops due to excessive rainfall. The news also reports of droughts in Orissa and rains in Maharashtra leading to destruction of crops.

Rainfall

• Rain continues to batter Tamil Nadu
• Rain plays havoc in three districts in Tamil Nadu
• Rain hits lignite mining in Tamil Nadu
• Continuing rain fury claims more lives in Tamil Nadu
• Rains continue to batter Puduchery, Karaikal in Tamil Nadu
• Rains lash Madurai: 10 dead, 73 houses damaged
• Five die in rain-related incidents in Tamil Nadu

Lake Tahoe, seen here from Emerald Bay, was one of the primary validation sites for the global lake study. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Article and Image Courtesy: Everything About Water

The November edition of Droplets e-newsletter published by the Everything About Water had the following highlights:

• India: The country facing a water deficit of 50% by 2030
• India: New national water policy in pipeline
• Rajasthan: Rs. 149.59 crore plant to clean river waters
• Madhya Pradesh: State to sign 6 MoUs for water projects
• Tamil Nadu: Habitat for Humanity brings clean drinking water
• Mumbai: MMRDA plans Rs. 1200 crore water conveyance system plan

In partnership with the Columbia Water Center, researchers from Punjab Agricultural University have initiated a multi-year project to implement and field-test diverse water-saving technologies, practices and policies aimed at reducing agricultural water use in the state of Punjab, particularly among rice farmers. In last year’s trial, the most successful project involved the installation of inexpensive tensiometers in the fields of over 500 farmers, yielding water savings of 30-35 percent.

Concurrently with the tensiometer trials, the team also recruited a smaller number of farmers to adopt a different way of cultivating rice altogether: Direct seeding of rice.

In traditional rice cultivation, rice is sprouted in a nursery; sprouted seedlings are then transplanted into standing water. With direct seeding, rice seed is sown and sprouted directly into the field, eliminating the laborious process of planting seedlings by hand and greatly reducing the crop’s water requirements.

Conventional rice production requires standing water

Sanitation/Wastewater

• India tops the list of nations lacking toilets
• India hunts for a Rural Toilet Design, 1000 Euros up for grabs
• 82% of rural India deprived of three basic necessities of life — tapped drinking water, electricity connection and sanitation
• There are 700 million cell phone connections in India, but only half this number of Indians have access to private toilets, says a UN study

Water Governance in Motion: Towards Socially and Environmentally Sustainable Water Laws focuses on the work undertaken by International Environmental Law Research Centre IELRC on water law reforms in India. It seeks to provide a broader understanding of the conceptual framework informing existing water law and ongoing reforms.

Climate Change

• India to release climate change report on Tuesday

 Environment

• India proposes a new emission check system
• Call for declaring soil as national resource: Soil Conservation Society of India

Article Courtesy: Earth Observatory

Image Courtesy: NASA

Cyclone Jal brought heavy rains to the Bay of Bengal and the southeastern coast of India in early November 2010. This color-coded map shows total rainfall over the region from November 1–7. The heaviest rainfall—more than 600 millimeters or nearly 24 inches—appears in dark blue. The lightest rainfall—less than 75 millimeters or 3 inches—appears in light green. Superimposed on the map is the storm track, with darker shades of orange corresponding with greater storm intensity.

A band of heavy rainfall ran parallel to the November 5–7 storm track. Especially heavy rain occurred south and west of where Jal made landfall on India’s southeastern coast. The Press Trust of India attributed 11 deaths in Andhra Pradesh state to heavy rains from Jal.

The paper argues that watershed management has to be fluid to take into consideration new realities like change in flow conditions, external realities like unintended impacts and the need to maintain minimum downstream flows for environmental and other purposes.