Source:Mathrubhumi,6th September 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Zoological survey of India discovered 4 species of coral reef
Source:Malayala Manorama, 2nd September 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
‘Steps needed to mitigate impact of climate change on agriculture’
Mr Mangala Rai, the Director General of Indian Council of Agriculture Research, has called for immediate steps to adapt ways to mitigate the impact of climate change on agriculture, as it is a cause of concern. A National Network Project titled ‘Impact, Adaptation, and Vulnerability of Indian Agriculture to Climate Change’ has been launched with a focus on impacts of climate change on different sectors of agricultural production. An outlay of Rs 422 crore has been made for the modernization of Agricultural Universities’ farms for the renovation and modernisation of farm infrastructure and facilities, he said.
Delivering the keynote address at a national seminar on ‘Enhancing Agricultural Productivity and Profitability’ here on Saturday, he pointed out that the revised Post Graduate course curricula would make higher education in agriculture more utilitarian and relevant in tune with the scientific and technological advancements and the country’s growing economic demands.
The share of agriculture in national income declined from 38.8 per cent to less than 18 per cent between 1980-81 and 2000-01 and the workforce engaged in it registered a marginal reduction of only 8 per cent, from 60 per cent to 52 per cent. Slow growth in agriculture with no significant decline in labour force has created a serious disparity between agriculture and non-agriculture sectors and urban and rural India, he said. He called for a multi-pronged strategic intervention to address the various challenges faced by the agriculture sector. Such a strategy should focus on five areas – enhanced investment in agriculture, development of human resources and effective knowledge management system, enhanced productivity and competitiveness of farm produce, promotion of farmer-consumer linkages, and an enabling policy environment that would help farmer to assess input and output markets, reduce cost, and receive remunerative prices making agriculture a profitable as well as an honourable venture.
Mr Rai also called for sustainable development of potential sources of water warning that by 2020 agriculture would demand 29 per cent more water as against a 12 per cent reduction in water availability. It was necessary to use quality seed to achieve the national goal of increasing production and enhancing agricultural growth, he said.
He stressed the need for the National Soil Use Policy to focus on maintaining the health of soil to facilitate its various productions, environmental and hydrological functions. A remote sensing and geographic information system based decision support system complete with a database on climate, soil, land use and crop yields should be developed to assess, map and monitor land use performance under given technological conditions, he said.
The Business Line, 31st August 2009
Delivering the keynote address at a national seminar on ‘Enhancing Agricultural Productivity and Profitability’ here on Saturday, he pointed out that the revised Post Graduate course curricula would make higher education in agriculture more utilitarian and relevant in tune with the scientific and technological advancements and the country’s growing economic demands.
The share of agriculture in national income declined from 38.8 per cent to less than 18 per cent between 1980-81 and 2000-01 and the workforce engaged in it registered a marginal reduction of only 8 per cent, from 60 per cent to 52 per cent. Slow growth in agriculture with no significant decline in labour force has created a serious disparity between agriculture and non-agriculture sectors and urban and rural India, he said. He called for a multi-pronged strategic intervention to address the various challenges faced by the agriculture sector. Such a strategy should focus on five areas – enhanced investment in agriculture, development of human resources and effective knowledge management system, enhanced productivity and competitiveness of farm produce, promotion of farmer-consumer linkages, and an enabling policy environment that would help farmer to assess input and output markets, reduce cost, and receive remunerative prices making agriculture a profitable as well as an honourable venture.
Mr Rai also called for sustainable development of potential sources of water warning that by 2020 agriculture would demand 29 per cent more water as against a 12 per cent reduction in water availability. It was necessary to use quality seed to achieve the national goal of increasing production and enhancing agricultural growth, he said.
He stressed the need for the National Soil Use Policy to focus on maintaining the health of soil to facilitate its various productions, environmental and hydrological functions. A remote sensing and geographic information system based decision support system complete with a database on climate, soil, land use and crop yields should be developed to assess, map and monitor land use performance under given technological conditions, he said.
The Business Line, 31st August 2009
The escalating water crisis
The current situation with close to half the country reeling under drought or drought-like conditions, and the number of affected districts rising to 246 across several States is a grim reminder of the escalating water crisis the population faces today. The water scarcity is not a sudden development. Water availability, both in quantity and quality, has been on the decline over the past three-four decades because of gross mismanagement of the available water resources and environmental degradation. Now many parts of India — rural and urban — face a drought-like situation on a recurring basis.
Opening a day-long conference of Environment Ministers from all States on August 18, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, said: “Climate change is threatening our ecosystems; water scarcity is becoming a way of life and pollution is a growing threat to our health and habitat.” The Prime Minister also expressed concern that rivers all over India were still being degraded and asked everyone to learn to live with ‘new ecological reality’.
ALARMING SITUATION
While the development and equitable distribution of water resources is a global challenge, the situation in India is more precarious since it has a fifth of the world’s population and one twenty-fifth of its water resources.The per capita availability is already low, there is enormous wastage, growing pollution and contamination of surface as well as ground water. Not only is there a growing shortage of irrigation water; even safe drinking water is increasingly scarce. According to the 2001 Census, only 68.2 per cent of households in the country had access to safe drinking water. Experts say, as of now, 50 per cent of the villages have no source of protected drinking water.In a list of 122 countries rated on the quality of potable drinking water, India ranked a lowly 120. And although India has four per cent of the world’s water, studies show that the average availability has been shrinking steadily.
It is estimated that by 2020, India will become an even more water-stressed nation. The World Bank’s State of India Environment reports the per capita drinking water availability in the country has fallen by about 15-20 per cent over the past two decades. It estimates that in the next 25 years, the demand for drinking water in India will double from 25 billion cubic metres currently to 52 billion cubic metres – without much change in availability. GROUND-WATER DEPLETION Around 70 per cent of India’s irrigation needs and 80 per cent of its domestic water supplies come from ground water. A large part of agriculture is dependent on non-renewable ground water. The water table in many States has been falling at an alarming rate. For decades, predominantly agricultural States such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan encouraged farmers to dig boreholes (popularly known as tube wells) to get free water for agricultural use. Power for pumping out this water was supplied virtually free or at heavily subsidised rates. This naturally led to over-exploitation of groundwater and widespread environmental damage. Elsewhere in India, too, many farmers resorted to groundwater exploitation for agricultural purposes, thanks to free availability of power but the above four States are the worst affected. To add to the problem, many farmers switched to water-guzzling crops such as paddy from wheat and used water indiscriminately. Not surprisingly, the rate of ground water depletion has raced far past the rate of replenishment in many States. Now comes the most shocking finding. NASA scientists in the US, using satellites to track ground water loss in India’s north-western grain basket, have found that there has been an average 33 cubic km a year drop in the water table in this region, much higher that the Indian government estimates. The satellite study has revealed a loss of 109 cubic km of groundwater in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan over the six-year period between August 2002 and October 2008, twice the capacity of India’s largest surface water reservoir – the Upper Wainganga in Madhya Pradesh.This rate of groundwater depletion suggests that the region may, within the next few years, experience a severe shortage of potable water, reduced agricultural productivity, and extended socio-economic stress, the US-based research team has warned.
WATER POLLUTION
The crisis has been further aggravated by large-scale pollution of surface and ground water. Almost 70 per cent of surface water resources have serious pollution problems and a significant proportion of ground water resources have been contaminated by chemical substances and pollutants. The deterioration in water quality is more apparent in and around large urban areas where inadequately treated effluents trickle into water sources.
Domestic waste is also one of the major pollution sources. Also, the rapid increase in the use of agro-chemicals and pesticides has been contaminating water supplies through surface run-off or underground leaching. WATER MANAGEMENT
Unfortunately, water management remains a completely neglected area in our country. The current crisis could have been avoided with well-planned and better water management practices instead of treating water as an unlimited free gift of Nature. Over the years, there has been a distinct lack of attention to water legislation, water conservation, efficiency in water use, water recycling and infrastructure. Fortunately, India gets fairly good rainfall at about 46 inches per annum. But almost 50 per cent of it falls within a span of 15 days and 90 per cent of the rain-water run-off occurs in just four months. Only about 15 per cent of the annual rain water is used for irrigation. If this water is properly stored and used for sustained surface irrigation, it could help solve the country’s future agriculture problems and also reduce excessive pressure on ground water. According to reports, the Planning Commission has prepared a draft report for an integrated water management policy aimed at easing scarcity for irrigation, industrial, municipal and drinking purposes. It suggests setting up a regulator to allocate and price water for farmers, improve data collection, and mandate the recharge of water through check-dams, ponds, etc.
The government should finalise the proposals and implement the same on a war footing. It should also make all out efforts to involve the State Governments, district authorities, village panchayats, non-governmental organisations and local populations to ensure that water harvesting, water conservation and efficient water use are accorded top priority.
The Business Line, 29th August 2009
Opening a day-long conference of Environment Ministers from all States on August 18, the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, said: “Climate change is threatening our ecosystems; water scarcity is becoming a way of life and pollution is a growing threat to our health and habitat.” The Prime Minister also expressed concern that rivers all over India were still being degraded and asked everyone to learn to live with ‘new ecological reality’.
ALARMING SITUATION
While the development and equitable distribution of water resources is a global challenge, the situation in India is more precarious since it has a fifth of the world’s population and one twenty-fifth of its water resources.The per capita availability is already low, there is enormous wastage, growing pollution and contamination of surface as well as ground water. Not only is there a growing shortage of irrigation water; even safe drinking water is increasingly scarce. According to the 2001 Census, only 68.2 per cent of households in the country had access to safe drinking water. Experts say, as of now, 50 per cent of the villages have no source of protected drinking water.In a list of 122 countries rated on the quality of potable drinking water, India ranked a lowly 120. And although India has four per cent of the world’s water, studies show that the average availability has been shrinking steadily.
It is estimated that by 2020, India will become an even more water-stressed nation. The World Bank’s State of India Environment reports the per capita drinking water availability in the country has fallen by about 15-20 per cent over the past two decades. It estimates that in the next 25 years, the demand for drinking water in India will double from 25 billion cubic metres currently to 52 billion cubic metres – without much change in availability. GROUND-WATER DEPLETION Around 70 per cent of India’s irrigation needs and 80 per cent of its domestic water supplies come from ground water. A large part of agriculture is dependent on non-renewable ground water. The water table in many States has been falling at an alarming rate. For decades, predominantly agricultural States such as Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan encouraged farmers to dig boreholes (popularly known as tube wells) to get free water for agricultural use. Power for pumping out this water was supplied virtually free or at heavily subsidised rates. This naturally led to over-exploitation of groundwater and widespread environmental damage. Elsewhere in India, too, many farmers resorted to groundwater exploitation for agricultural purposes, thanks to free availability of power but the above four States are the worst affected. To add to the problem, many farmers switched to water-guzzling crops such as paddy from wheat and used water indiscriminately. Not surprisingly, the rate of ground water depletion has raced far past the rate of replenishment in many States. Now comes the most shocking finding. NASA scientists in the US, using satellites to track ground water loss in India’s north-western grain basket, have found that there has been an average 33 cubic km a year drop in the water table in this region, much higher that the Indian government estimates. The satellite study has revealed a loss of 109 cubic km of groundwater in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan over the six-year period between August 2002 and October 2008, twice the capacity of India’s largest surface water reservoir – the Upper Wainganga in Madhya Pradesh.This rate of groundwater depletion suggests that the region may, within the next few years, experience a severe shortage of potable water, reduced agricultural productivity, and extended socio-economic stress, the US-based research team has warned.
WATER POLLUTION
The crisis has been further aggravated by large-scale pollution of surface and ground water. Almost 70 per cent of surface water resources have serious pollution problems and a significant proportion of ground water resources have been contaminated by chemical substances and pollutants. The deterioration in water quality is more apparent in and around large urban areas where inadequately treated effluents trickle into water sources.
Domestic waste is also one of the major pollution sources. Also, the rapid increase in the use of agro-chemicals and pesticides has been contaminating water supplies through surface run-off or underground leaching. WATER MANAGEMENT
Unfortunately, water management remains a completely neglected area in our country. The current crisis could have been avoided with well-planned and better water management practices instead of treating water as an unlimited free gift of Nature. Over the years, there has been a distinct lack of attention to water legislation, water conservation, efficiency in water use, water recycling and infrastructure. Fortunately, India gets fairly good rainfall at about 46 inches per annum. But almost 50 per cent of it falls within a span of 15 days and 90 per cent of the rain-water run-off occurs in just four months. Only about 15 per cent of the annual rain water is used for irrigation. If this water is properly stored and used for sustained surface irrigation, it could help solve the country’s future agriculture problems and also reduce excessive pressure on ground water. According to reports, the Planning Commission has prepared a draft report for an integrated water management policy aimed at easing scarcity for irrigation, industrial, municipal and drinking purposes. It suggests setting up a regulator to allocate and price water for farmers, improve data collection, and mandate the recharge of water through check-dams, ponds, etc.
The government should finalise the proposals and implement the same on a war footing. It should also make all out efforts to involve the State Governments, district authorities, village panchayats, non-governmental organisations and local populations to ensure that water harvesting, water conservation and efficient water use are accorded top priority.
The Business Line, 29th August 2009
Laughing gas is the biggest threat to the Earth’s ozone layer
Laughing gas is now the biggest threat to the earth’s ozone layer and is likely to remain so throughout this century, says a new study. An international team, led by A R Ravishankara of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has found that nitrous oxide, commonly called laughing gas, has replaced chlorofluorocarbons(CFCs) as the potent destroyer of ozone in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The dramatic reduction in CFCs over the last 20 years is an environmental success story. But man-made nitrous oxide is the ‘elephant’ in the room among ozone-depleting substances. “Right now, nitrous oxide is the most important ozone depleting gas that is emitted. It will continue to be so unless something is done”, Dr.Ravishankara was quoted by the New Scientist as saying. The team calculated the ozone depletion potential of nitrous oxide, to come to the conclusion that is ts threatening the ozone layer which shields Earth from the ultraviolet rays of the Sun, which increases the risk of cancer. Nitrous Oxide (N2O) is produced naturally when nitrogen in soil or water is eaten by bacteria. It then rises into the stratosphere where most of it is broken down into harmless molecules of nitrogen and oxygen by the Sun’s rays. But some of it remains, and can survive for hundreds of years. The compound reacts with high-energy oxygen atoms to produce a deadlier compound nitric oxide (NO. this then goes on to destroy ozone, a molecule made up of three oxygen atoms. Nitrous oxide is also a heat-trapping greenhouse gas in the league of methane or carbon-dioxide, so regulating it would, also be good for the climate”, Ravishankara said. The findings are published in the latest edition of the Science journal.
The New Indian Express, 29th August 2009
The New Indian Express, 29th August 2009
State preparing plan for crisis management, says Minister
Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran said that the government was preparing a crisis management plan to help the State handle the impact of disasters, both natural and man-made.Delivering the inaugural address at a national workshop organised by the Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS), he said the draft of the crisis management plan was ready. “It will be published after discussions at various levels. Kerala will become the first State in the country to be equipped with such a plan,” he said. The Minister said efforts were on to create a State-level flood management plan. “We have initiated steps to set up a State disaster response force in Ernakulam with assistance from the Central government. A civil defence institute is expected to become operational in Thrissur district in two months and a regional institute has been planned in Kannur. As many as nine coastal districts have been equipped with early warning systems and efforts are on to constitute disaster management committees in 197 villages in the coastal belt. The construction of cyclone shelters will be taken up in nine districts under the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Programme.” Mr.Rajendran said a safety programme on disaster management would be implemented in 200 schools. “A voluntary corps of youth will be set up soon in association with the Youth Welfare Board. The corps will assist the administration in disaster management activities,” the Minister added.The Minister released the district-level natural hazard zonation maps prepared by CESS. Revenue Principal Secretary Nivedita P. Haran received the map of Kerala while Collector Sanjay Kaul received the map for Thiruvananthapuram district.
The Hindu, 26th August 2009
The Hindu, 26th August 2009
Honeybees crucial to food safety: experts
Breeding of high-yielding and pest-resistant honeybees is essential to enhance the yield potential of agricultural crops and ensure food safety, according to Dr. D. Alexander, Director of Research, Kerala Agricultural University.Delivering the inaugural address at the second half-yearly review meeting of a network project titled ‘Morphometry and Phylogeography of honeybees and stingless bees in India’ promoted by the Department of Biotechnology, he underlined the potential of advanced biotechnological tools in developing better varieties of honeybees. Experts participating in the three-day event stressed the importance of beekeeping and pollination. Dr. Alexander said that insects, especially honeybees, were responsible for pollinating 80 per cent of crop plants. “A catastrophic outbreak of Thai Sacbrood Disease (TSBV) in South India ruined the beekeeping industry, destroying 95 per cent of the existing honeybee colonies. The industry is keeping its hopes pinned on the development of TSBV- tolerant strain of Indian honeybee colonies from the surviving bee population through selective breeding. The College of Agriculture, Vellayani, has taken up the challenge under the All India co-ordinated Research Project on Honeybees and Pollinators,” he said.
The Hindu, 26th August 2009
The Hindu, 26th August 2009
Manmohan inaugurates new IIST campus
Over tele-link from New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the new campus of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), an institution moulding the next generation of space scientists for the country, at Valiamala, near here. Functions were conducted simultaneously at the Prime Minister’s residence in New Delhi and at Valiamala at the southern end of the country, to mark the occasion. While the Prime Minister and three of his Cabinet colleagues and the top scientific community in the country were present at the function in New Delhi, four of the Kerala Ministers and the Leader of the Opposition and top people of the IIST and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) attended the function in Valiamala. Besides the formal inauguration of the IIST campus, the functions also featured the distribution of ISRO awards to individual scientists and teams in IRSO and Defense Research Development Organisation for the contributions they had made in 2007 for the advance of Indian Space Science. While a few of the awardees received the recognition directly from the Prime Minister, many others were honoured at the function at Valiamala. The Prime Minister also inaugurated a new Space Complex of the ISRO, by tele-link, at Sadiqnagar in New Delhi. This complex would set going ISRO’s endeavours to popularise space technology’s people-oriented and development-oriented services such as tele-medicine, tele-education, disaster management and village resource management in the northern parts of the country, ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair, said at the function in New Delhi. IIST director B.N. Suresh, addressing the function at Valiamala, said the institution would be shifting to the new campus by January 2010. Post-graduate courses in space science disciplines would start at the IIST at the beginning of the next academic year. The institution has just completed admission to the third batch of students in B.Tech. programmes in Avionics, Aerospace Engineering and Physical Sciences. With the addition of the third batch, this institution, started in 2007, will have nearly 450 students on its rolls. Those who attended the function included Ministers M.A. Baby, N.K. Premachandran, and M. Vijayakumar and Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy.
The Hindu, 26th August 2009
The Hindu, 26th August 2009
Proposal to monitor groundwater
Experts participating in a panel discussion organised by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) here recently stressed the need for regular monitoring to protect and conserve groundwater resources in Kerala. The meeting proposed a pilot project involving the CGWB and the State Planning Board for efficient monitoring of groundwater. It recommended the use of satellites to uplink groundwater monitoring stations across the State. The panel discussions proposed a collaborative effort involving the Centre for Earth Science Studies, the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, the National Institute of Oceanography and the CGWB to study the impact of global warming on the coastal aquifer system. Highlighting the need for detailed, long-term studies on the subject, it called for strengthening the monitoring network and assessing the extent of submergence of coastal tracts and islands and seawater ingress and consequent changes in the groundwater regime. It called for studies to create a database on the impact of sand-mining on groundwater. The panel proposed the establishment of a drilling division for the CGWB in Kerala.
The Hindu, 25th August 2009
The Hindu, 25th August 2009
Amazon tribes fear disaster
Once they were threatened by wildcat, gold-miners and a measles epidemic that slashed their population to just 56. But now the Ikpeng, a proud tribe of Amazon warriors, say a new catastrophe looms over their future: the damming of the rivers they depend upon for food. Across Brazil alarm bells are ringing over plans to build at least 229 small hydro-electric dams, known as PCHs, which the government hopes will generate electricity and drive economic development. Opponents say they will damage the environment and destroy the livelihoods of thousands of Brazilian tribes people. There are 346 PCHs in Brazil, with another 70 under construction and 159 awaiting licences. If the construction of dams continues, “the fish will run out and the waters will start to go down,” warned Komuru Txicao, a local tribesman. “Here in the forest we don’t need electricity. We need fish, water and land.” For Mr. Komuru and his neighbours, the immediate concern is the construction of a network of PCHs around the Xingu national park in Mato Grosso state. Mr. Komuru fears the dams will block the tributaries of the Xingu, itself the largest tributary of the Amazon. According to the National Electric Energy Agency (Aneel), four PCHs operate near the reserve; another, Paranatinga I, is waiting for its licence. Aneel says 13 PCHs are being built in Mato Grosso state, while another 19 projects are awaiting licences. Last March the conflict escalated when eight staff from the electricity company responsible for one PCH spent five days held as “hostage” near Pavuru. They were released only after the President of Brazil’s indigenous agency, Funai, personally intervened. “We didn’t kill them, we ‘arrested’ them,” recalled Mr. Komuru. Similar battles are raging across the Amazon region. A dispute over the $4 billion Belo Monte dam further north along the Xingu river turned violent in May when an engineer from the Brazilian power company Eletrobras was attacked during a presentation about the plant. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has sought to allay fears over the dam, vowing that it “would not be shoved down anyone’s throat”.But concerns grew in July when a federal court lifted an embargo on the Belo Monte licensing process, clearing the way for a bidding round later this year.Having witnessed the Ikpeng’s plight in the 1960s, Melobo, an Ikpeng shaman, fears history may be repeating itself. “The farmers ruin the Indian’s things,” said Mr. Melobo. “They ruin the Indian’s water. They ruin the Indian’s land.” — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2009
The Hindu, 25th August 2009
The Hindu, 25th August 2009
National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency approved
The Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change on Monday approved “in principle” the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency. The Mission will enable about Rs. 75,000 crore worth transactions in energy efficiency. In doing so, it will, by 2015, help save about five per cent of our annual energy consumption. The Mission is the second of the eight missions under India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change to be approved by the Council. The National Solar Mission was approved earlier this month.In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said “our success in reducing the energy intensity of our growth will also reduce the carbon intensity of our growth. This will have a beneficial impact on our emissions trajectory. The implementation of this Mission will also be a powerful signal to the international community that we are willing to contribute in a significant manner, to meeting the global challenge of climate change.” Dr. Singh also emphasised “it must also have inbuilt provisions for monitoring and evaluation so as to ensure transparency, accountability and responsiveness.” The most innovative and challenging new initiative to be introduced under the Mission is the “Perform, Achieve and Trade” (PAT) mechanism which will assign energy efficiency improvement targets to the country’s most energy intensive industrial units, with the provision of allowing them to retain any energy efficiency improvements in excess of their target in the form of Energy Savings Certificates, called ESCerts. Units will also be allowed to use purchase ESCerts to meet their targets. Other Mission initiatives include expanded use of the carbon market to help achieve market transformation towards more energy efficient equipment and appliances, and the creation of two funds to help channel investment into energy efficiency projects. One of the funds, the Partial Risk Guaranty Facility, will provide back-to-back guarantees to banks for loans to energy efficiency projects so as to reduce the perceived risks of these projects.The other fund, a Venture Capital Fund, will support investment in the manufacturing of energy efficient products and provision of energy efficiency services.Another major goal of the Mission is the promotion of Energy Service Company (ESCO) based upgrades to energy efficiency in buildings, municipalities and agricultural pumpsets. Through this business model, ESCOs invest in energy efficiency investments, and are paid over several years from the resulting energy savings. Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said: “We have already initiated a pilot ESCO project in the agricultural sector in Solapur district in Maharashtra.” (The Power Ministry is coordinating this Mission.) He said energy savings from the replacement of inefficient pumpsets by BEE 5-star labelled pumpsets would not only pay the ESCO for the investment in pumpsets, but would also reduce the subsidy bill of the State government.
The Hindu, 25th August 2009
The Hindu, 25th August 2009
Scientists for development of traditional water
Scientists, who attended the ongoing Environmental Congress, being conducted by the Centre for Environment and Development and the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, has called for the development of traditional water resources to meet the community-level water requirements of the State. The groundwater table in the State is under severe stress and is in need of urgent conservation methods, they said. In a paper, titled ‘Traditional water resources in Kerala’, the authors Kamalakshan Kokkal and Aswathy M V said that irrecoverable ground water depletion had been reported from the districts of Kasargod, Kannur, Palakkad, Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram. It is an irony that districts receiving copious rainfall like Kasargod is experiencing a rising stress on groundwater resources. “The groundwater in Kasargod has gone down by at least 4 metres. The unscientific use of water such as excessive irrigation and drilling borewells within the existing wells contribute to the problem,” said Kamalakshan Kokkal. The water conservation methods of yore include the surangams, oorani, valkinar, nathakkom and kavalakinar among many others. While surangams can be built only in areas with a typical laterite rock, others such as the oorani can be adopted anywhere. The oorani is a ground water extraction system, that consists of larger pond for collection of rainwater and one or more wells dug around it. The water from the large pond recharges the wells. The paper also discussed the various ponds, springs, traditional water conservation and water diversion methods, different types of checkdams, various traditional irrigation practices and the different ways of water resource management. The Congress also discussed the urban water scenario and a paper was presented on ‘Drinking water scenario of the Thiruvanathapuram district: A Vision for 2025’ by a team from the KU Department of Future Studies and the Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS). The paper discussed the demand-supply gap in drinking water and how the scarcity could be effectively solved. As it would be impossible for the Kerala Water Authority to meet the huge increase in demand in future, the authors have suggested rainwater harvesting as a cost-effective technology that can be adopted by all categories of consumers. Some of the other interesting papers presented at the Congress include the ‘Heavy metal content in the water and aquatic macrophytes of lower reaches of Periyar river’, Pricing of Water in Kerala, Prevalence and enhances survival of indicator bacteria and enteric pathogens in Kumarakom region of Vembanad lake’ and ‘Watershed Management of Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary’. There was a special session on urban waste water management on Friday, by a panel consisting of E J James, Water Institute director, Karunya University, A R V Pillai, State quality co-ordinator, N C Narayanan, associate professor, IIT Mumbai, V Sreekumar, Corporation Health Officer and M Dileep Kumar from the Suchitwa Mission, Kerala.
The New Indian Express, 22nd August 2009
The New Indian Express, 22nd August 2009
Water audit for irrigation projects
A two-day workshop on initiating change in the irrigation sector organised by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management (CWRDM) concluded here on Friday with a proposal to carry out regular water auditing in irrigation projects and implement Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) across the State in a phased manner. The workshop recommended special programmes and packages to promote group farming in the command area of irrigation projects. It decided to set up a State-level PIM wing in the Irrigation Department comprising experts and reconstitute the high-level working group on PIM with the Chief Secretary as chairperson. It also resolved to expedite moves to amend the Kerala Irrigation and Water Conservation Act for the purpose. A strategy paper released at the end of the workshop decided to list out the irrigation projects for implementation of PIM and prepare ayacut maps. It stressed the need to ensure better coordination between the Agriculture Department and irrigation agencies in the State. The data generated by the proposed water auditing will be published in the public domain. A water release schedule for distribution of water to each project will be worked out in consultation with farmers’ associations and the Agriculture Department. Rehabilitation of damaged irrigation systems like field channels and control structures and training programmes for officials of the departments of agriculture and irrigation, water user associations and farmers are other major recommendations. Delivering the valedictory address, Additional Chief Secretary, Water Resources, K. Jayakumar highlighted the need for performance audit in government departments to ensure accountability, professional integrity and commitment. K.V. Jayakumar, executive director, CWRDM, and George Chackacherry, scientist, CWRDM and coordinator of the workshop, spoke on the occasion. The Hindu, 22nd August 2009
Strategy devised to bring about changes
The two-day state-level workshop on `Leading Change in the Irrigation Sector’, organised by the Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, which concluded at Sasthra Bhavan here on Friday, has worked out a strategy for initiating changes in the irrigation sector in Kerala. For this, they have called for the increased involvement of farmers in Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) that ought to be implemented in all the irrigation projects in Kerala in a phased manner. They have recommended the reconstitution of the High Level Working Group on PIM and to expedite enactment of amendments to the Kerala Irrigation and Water Conservation Act, 2003. A major recommendation was to ensure active involvement of the Agriculture Department in the command areas. Necessary forums for interaction and coordination among irrigation agencies and Agriculture Department may be set up for this at various levels, with the roles and responsibilities of each Department/Agency clearly spelt out. They have also called for regular water auditing in the irrigation projects and bringing the data to the public domain and creating special programmes and packages for the implementation of group farming in all the irrigation projects. The worked-out strategy also involves several training programmes in a problem-solving mode for all Irrigation, Agriculture and Cooperative Departments and training programmes, discussions, awareness programmes, for farmers on PIM-related topics, with special programmes being organised for women. The other recommendations include preparation of ayacut maps, listing out the major/medium irrigation project on priority basis for the implementation of PIM, motivation of officials involved in PIM, enforcement of water release schedule, and rehabilitation of the irrigation systems, including the field channels and control structures which are damaged. In his valedictory address, K Jayakumar, Additional Chief Secretary, Water Resources, called for performance audit, professional integrity and commitment in the government departments, especially the Irrigation Department, if a change was required.
The Hindu, 22nd August 2009
The Hindu, 22nd August 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
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