In August, western Odisha was shut down 13 times to protest the state government’s decision to build three barrages on the Mahanadi river. They are meant to dam surplus water downstream of the Hirakud reservoir to generate 320 MW power, and, as recently announced, to irrigate farms. Not a single …
THE three-year-old peaceful protest of Mavla taluka residents against the laying of a water pipeline turned violent on August 9 when three farmers were killed in police firing. Residents of 75 villages of the taluka in Pune are angry over the Maharashtra government’s decision to lay the pipeline from the …
A High Powered Committee set up by the Central government has suggested that allocation of natural resources should go to the highest bidder. This 13-member committee, headed by former finance secretary Ashok Chawla, submitted its recommendations in the first week of June. It was set up in January in the …
ACTING on complaints of severe water shortage in Gurgaon, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on May 20 asked the Central Ground Water Authority, or CGWA, to provide the details of groundwater levels in the fast-expanding industrial and financial hub. It set August 5 as the deadline. In February, the …
IN A landmark amendment to the law governing Maharashtra’s water regulatory system, the state has placed agriculture above industry in priority for allocating water from dams. Before the amendment of the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority (MWRRA) Act 2005, Maharashtra was the only state in the country to have given …
As water gets scarce, the lendings in the sector by international financial institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are being looked into more critically. Most critics believe that with small investments, the banks have been able to dictate water policies in developing countries. These institutions …
Call it the fallout of seven years of severe drought or government inaction, a silent revolution is brewing in Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Communities are getting united and digging channels to bring water from government canals to their fields. Some are volunteering labour, while those belonging to Scheduled castes …
Karnataka’s irrigation department has fast-tracked construction work to divert water from the Mahadayi river to the Malaprabha. The canal project is under dispute but the state’s water resources department is adamant that it is crucial to meet the drinking water needs of the twin towns, Hubli and Dharwad, that aim …
RESIDENTS of Kelwan in Gujarat’s Dang district do not allow outsiders to enter their village, especially people who seem city dwellers. They take them to be government officials who would conduct surveys for a project that will submerge their land and take away the area’s water to benefit industry. Their …
Of the 118 proposed projects, for which data is available, 33 plan to withdraw water from the Mahanadi, Chhattisgarh's main river. The water requirement of projects withdrawing water from the river stands at 1,500 mcm per year. If the water requirement of projects withdrawing from its tributaries—Lilagarh, Hasdeo and Seonath—are …
For years, the Amravati Thermal Power Project in Maharashtra has been facing public opposition. Farmers in the Vidarbha region fear the power plant will suck water from the irrigation project in Upper Wardha. On June 17, an unexpected breakthrough appeared. The state's water resources minister Ajit Pawar met people's representatives, …
TELUGU Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu reignited the Godavari river water sharing controversy when he was arrested last month on his way to the Babhali barrage in Maharashtra’s Nanded district. Andhra Pradesh has long held that the barrage, located 7 km into its border with Maharashtra, will deprive Telangana of …
women in Bikhnatori village in Bihar are jubilant they no longer have to walk hours to fetch water. For the first time since Independence, the border village is getting potable water supply. The Bihar government started supplying 3,000 litres of water daily through a tanker from March 25. Down To …
Despite its rich resources like forests and minerals, Bundelkhand is a region of distress and crisis. A study fi nds that the distress of the region simply cannot be explained by the absence or irregularity of rainfall. There are long-term structural problems which have had a cumulative effect over the …
The Sardar Sarovar Dam reached a height of 121.92 m in 2006 and at this height the dam has enough water to generate most of the promised benefits - irrigation, drinking water, and electricity. However, currently only 30% of the targeted villages receive regular water supplies, less than 20% of …
It has been a hot, dry summer in the Middle East, and as water levels have plunged, political tensions have risen. In early July, Israel's Water Authority unveiled plans to combat what it called "the worst water crisis in the nation's history". Environmental campaigners responded by slating the Water Authority …
The Joint Water Regulation Board (JWRB) of the inter-State Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) agreement on sharing of waters between Kerala and Tamil Nadu will hold a meeting in Coimbatore on April 9 Sources in the Water Resources Department here said Kerala would register its protest against the alleged violation of …
Even as the Tamil Nadu Assembly adopted a resolution urging the Union Government to come forward to safeguard the rights of the people of the State, various Kannada organisations gave a call for a Karnataka bandh on April 10 to protest the Hogenakkal drinking water supply project. The resolution, moved …
THE Japanese-funded Hogenakkal water project is becoming mired in needless controversy. On the one hand, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's repeated assertion that the Hogenakkal drinking water and power generation project will not be stopped has sparked off a series of protests by pro-Kannada activists in Karnataka apart from …
How safe is your tap water? Check for the bio-films formed on your house tap, which can be potentially hosting bacteria and you will get the answer. A study conducted on drinking water sources in 46 villages of Bangalore North taluk has revealed a higher biocide activity in the water, …
