Groundwater levels are reducing all over the world: NASA analysis

A recent analysis by NASA has revealed that global water scarcity is a far greater problem than previously thought, affecting two-thirds of the world's population. The study, which has assessed water scarcity on a monthly basis, specifically at the times of year when it could be an issue has found that almost half of the 4 billion affected by severe water scarcity for a month or more are in India and China. A similar study has shown that the impacts of global warming along with growing demand has caused the world’s water supply to drop to dangerous levels.

Government has launched the ENVIS Portal

The Environment Ministry has launched the Environment Information System (ENVIS) portal, a tool that will reach out to the people on environmental issues and create more awareness among them. The new initiative which has brought all the ENVIS Centres under one roof, runs parallel with the Digital India Objective and aims at improving the digital literacy in the environment sector and delivering services digitally all over the country. Along with this, an award for the best State ENVIS centre to Forests, Environment & Wildlife Management Department, Sikkim and the award for the best Thematic ENVIS Centre to Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru have also been presented at the launch.

Activists stand against the Art of Living event that will encroach the Yamuna floodplains in Delhi

A group of activists have opposed the event commemorating the 35th anniversary of the Art of Living Foundation which is to be held in Delhi in March this year. Per activists, the venue of the event is a large patch of the active floodplains of Yamuna river in the city and the preparations for the event are damaging these floodplains which are vital for maintaining the biodiversity and health of the river. Although the event is only for a few days, the damage caused to the river's health in the preparatory and operational phase would remain for almost a decade. Activits have also appealed to the President and Prime Minister to not attend the event.

India's cleanliness ranking puts Mysuru at the top while Dhanbad is at bottom

The Urban Development Ministry has released the findings of the Swachh Survekshan-2016 with an intent to measure the impact of the efforts under Swachh Bharat Mission launched in October 2014. Mysuru has topped the list followed by Chandigarh, Tiruchirappalli and New Delhi Municipal Corporation while Dhanbad, Asansol, Itanagar, Patna and Meerut were among the least clean cities. The survey, which has covered 73 cities including 51 cities with more than 10 lakh population, is aimed at helping cities know where they stand in terms of cleanliness and what more need to be done to ensure sanitation.

Government orders recalculation of Godavari waters

Post the objections raised by the Telangana Government, the Water Resources Minister, Uma Bharti, has ordered a fresh study to determine the quantum of surplus water available in the Godavari river. In a review meeting on the interlinking of rivers, the former has brought to notice of the Water Minister that the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has arrived at the surplus water figures of the river, based on the parameters set 25 years ago and without taking into account the irrigation schemes that had come up after that.

This is a roundup of important news updates from February 16 - 21, 2016. Also read last week's policy matters update.