Delhi—a city and union territory of India containing the country’s capital, New Delhi—continues to grow in population, posing challenges to civic agencies in the provision of citizens’ essential needs.
The water-starved Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, whose Unesco status of world heritage site is under threat due to persistent water crisis, can finally soak some hope. The Supreme Court-constituted central empowered committee (CEC) has sanctioned Rs 65 crores to this sanctuary for water harvesting projects and maintaining its aquatic ecology.
Defective tube wells are causing water shortage in most parts of the city with the downtown being affected the worst. Apart from faulty tube wells, massive load shedding is a major cause for water shortage. Tube well operators are often found absenting themselves from duty as they take it as a part-time job. "At the time of power outage, tube well operators leave their offices and they come back after a delay. As a result, tube wells remain closed and no one could get water,' Abdul Waheed, a retired college teacher, told Daily Times.
As governments struggle with a sudden crisis caused by significant and rapid increases in the price of food, a companion crisis in availability of water also threatens billions of people. A hidden problem behind the food crisis is that as much as half of all food grown is lost or wasted before and after it reaches the consumer. And this wasted food is wasted water too. To meet the challenge of feeding growing populations and the global hungry, massive reductions in the amount of food wasted after production are needed.
This volume is part of the series Ecological Economics and Human Well-being that offers the best and most recent work in the transdisciplinary field of ecological economics, whose focus is the study of the relationship between economic activity and environmental sustainability.
Wapda has stopped further filling of Tarbela and Mangala dams and is discharging 0.271 million cusecs water from various rim stations to meet water demands of the provinces for Kharif crops. Wapda sources told Business Recorder here on Monday that water inflows in rivers Indus, Kabul, Jhelum and Chanab have decreased during the last week of July.
Your Editorial 'A fresh approach to water' (Nature 452, 253; 2008) points out that the world's looming water crisis is driven by climate change, population growth and economic development. In China, changing food-consumption patterns are the main cause of the worsening water scarcity. If other developing countries follow China's trend towards protein-rich Western diets, the global water shortage will become still more severe. (Correspondence)
Pune, July 16 Guardian Minister Ajit Pawar today sounded a word of caution to officials and citizens vis-a-vis the depleting water levels in dams. Pointing out that the water levels in dams in the district are fast sinking, Pawar said that if it does not rain by July 31, the Irrigation Department will be forced to introduce a 50-60 per cent water cut.
Hyderabad, July 16: Residents of former municipalities such as Kapra, Alwal, Malkajgiri and LB Nagar and those in Secunderabad Cantonment Board have to wait a little longer to get Krishna water. The South Central Railway has given permission to lay a pipeline for ring main-II of Krishna Phase-II only on Wednesday. According to the water board managing director, Mr G. Asok Kumar, it would take two months to complete ring main-II works.
With the prices of all commodities reaching an all-time high, operators of water tankers in the city have doubled the charges for 1,000 gallons water, citing that the filling charges have been raised and octroi charges have been placed on tankers passing through the area under the jurisdiction of Malir Cantonment Board.
Water stress is a major problem affecting the future of human societies around the world, particularly in the rural areas of the developing world. The Newsmakers article "Barrn to lush" (2 May, p. 593) highlighted an award for the invention of a new manual pump used for irrigation in rural Africa. We fully respect and admire the invention of efficient and affordable pumping systems to solve water shortage problems in rural areas. However, we are concerned about the intensive application of these new pumps to water-limited systems. (Letters)
