Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Naresh Kumar Vs Government of NCT of Delhi & Others dated 13/05/2025. The matter is related to illegal extraction of groundwater in Manakpura, Delhi by the water supply mafia. According to the complainant, one Hemant has illegally drilled a borewell …
The US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Richland, has recruited an army of microorganisms to clean soils and underground water tainted with nitrate and carbon tetrachloride - an industrial solvent that is a suspected carcinogen. In this bioremediation process, native bacteria which can be coaxed into degrading contaminants …
AT least 2 million tonnes of loss of rice production is feared in Bangladesh during the current kharif-1 -- a drought which has left small rivers, mostly canals, creeks and ponds dry and rendered hundreds of thousands of pumps used for lifting ground water for irrigation and drinking, dry because …
RECYCLED wastewater is no longer the anathema it used to be. Several countries have begun using recycled waste-water for crop irrigation and landscape gardening. Now, researchers are studying the possibility of using treated sewage water for both drinking and ceplenishing fast-depleting aquifers - a water-bearing layer of permeable rock - …
A lonely wind moans eerily through empty houses and deserted streets, rattling a broken window here, a halfhinged door there: 350 people once lived here. Today, 35 km from Mandvi, Pyaaka is a ghost village. But Navrang Shanushali chose to stay. "Our village is 5 km from the nearest market. …
AT BHUJPUR, 32 km from the coastal town of Mandvi in Kutch, the Nagmati river is only a bone-dry riverbed with a small, out of place check-dam. But buried in the sand lie the village's life- support systems - a dyke and 4 tubewells that quietly recharge the underground aquifer. …
Environmental engineers at the Tampere University of Technology, Finland, have successfully demonstrated an efficient method to clean up chlorophenol-contaminated groundwater without first having to heat it up (Environmental Science & Technology, Vol 28, No 13). Widely used as wood-preservatives, chlorophenols are known to pollute surface as well as groundwater. Conventional …
SPANNING 9 chapters, Tushaar Shah's book focuses on a very specific but vital component of India's agricultural development -- groundwater markets (GWMs) and its effect on the economy, society and environment. The book brings together the author's research on GWMs since 1983 -- based mainly in Gujarat -- though a …
The "vast potential" of groundwater was either over-exploited or under-utilised, said minister of state for water resources and urban development P K Thungon at a seminar held in Delhi on March 22 to discuss the need for a shift in focus from large and medium surface-water projects to small dams …
A CONSORTIUM of organisations and individuals is opposing the construction of a hotel in the catchment area of the Kandalama reservoir in Sri Lanka. The consortium is worried the drawing of groundwater for the hotel's needs will affect the tank's water-level.
The relationship between water resources and population growth keeps changing with the adoption of new technologies. Has this been the case with India? Technology cannot increase the water content of the rivers, but it can improve harnessing and conservation techniques and so make more water available for individual consumption. The …
A NEW approach to agricultural planning, drawn up by the Planning Commission at the instigation of Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, has run into a near-fatal snag: State governments are jittery about putting their money into something that still hasn't been proved tried and true. Rao had urged the …
• Plan priorities ACRP assumes that once land and water resources are developed, the desired levels of yield and productivity will be achieved. Soil conservation and reclamation, irrigation and other land development schemes have been listed as priorities. The proposed ACRP plans have sought major increases and redeployment of funds …
GEOLOGISTS have found traces of a river that flowed between 5,000 and 11,000 years ago in the desert expanse of the Arabian peninsula. Some stretches of the river may have been as wide as 5 km wide, says Farouk El-Baz, director of Boston University's remote sensing centre (New Scientist, April …
THREE years ago, the state government directed the Uttar Pradesh Ground Water Board (UPGWB) to carry out a detailed survey of the fluorosis-affected villages in Unnao district. But it has yet to release the Rs 7 lakh that such a survey would cost. Despite this, the UP government recently directed …
A STUDY of meteorological records indicates drought has been a recurring problem in Pakistan"s Thar region. When it occurs now, it creates severe shortages of food, fodder and water, but such shortages never occurred during more serious droughts in the past. That"s because these shortages are the result of major …
WITH DEPLETION of groundwater heavy in many parts of the country and rich farmers almost monopolising water resources, the Union government is renewing efforts to get states to control groundwater extraction. Last month, the water resources ministry circulated a model bill on groundwater use, making obtaining of permits compulsory and …
TUBEWELL-related deaths in the green revolution districts of Haryana due to the victims getting trapped in poison-gas pockets formed, some say, by heavy use of fertilisers, are rapidly approaching their usual post-monsoon peak. Since 1987, there have been hundreds of tubewell-related deaths in Haryana, in particular in the districts of …
A concerted international effort is underway to protect the remains of the ancient city of Moenjodaro from the double menace of a rising water table that is turning the city to dust and the unpredictable ways of the Indus which threatens to flood the site. But the plan may be …
The groundwater circulation is limited in Sri Lanka because nine tenth area of the island is underlain by metamorphic hard rocks which are generally very impermeable. Therefore to satisfy the water demand some other possibilities of water resources should be explored before starting a groundwater investigation programme for a given …
The world is becoming increasingly urbanised with majority of the population residing and working in cities. While increasing urbanisation and economic growth can provide significant benefits, they also present a range of challenges with regard to the escalating resource use and today we witness one of our most important natural …
