Portal on a CD
Posted on October 30, 2007 | Filed Under Announcements, IWP
Reposting about our “Portal on a CD”:
Way back in June we had created the latest version of our “Portal on a CD”. We give this away free to people who feel they would find it useful. It was meant to be a complete version of all the Portal content on a CD. Since June the amount of content on the Portal has grown so fast that it would be far from fitting on a single CD. So we have put off creating the next version. But we do have the June version and it contains a good chunk of information and links that would be useful in various contexts. If you want a copy of the CD, you can write to us at portal@arghyam.org giving your contact information - postal address and contact telephone number. It would be nice if you could tell us a little about how you plan to use the CD.
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Catalyst Magazine
Posted on October 30, 2007 | Filed Under IWP
The Association for Human Development (www.afhd.org), is a non-profit that works to accelarate development in India. It brings out a magazine - “Catalyst for Human Development“. Earlier this year, they had an issue that was focussed on water. It covered many aspects - The Chennai Rain Center, several case studies, water conflicts and the India Water Portal. We have some copies of the magazine (hardcopy, paper format) that we would be happy to send to you free of charge if you are interested. Mail us with your postal address to portal@arghyam.org .
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‘Government overestimated water availability’
Posted on October 30, 2007 | Filed Under Announcements, News
From the Times of India , 27th October
‘Govt overestimated water availability’
India had only 668 billion cubic metres (BCM) of water compared to 1,110 BCM claimed by the Central Water Commission (CWC) less by 442 BCM.
NEW DELHI: If this is true, it could change the entire economic direction of the country. A paper published by researchers from IIT-Delhi and Jamia Milia Islamia has claimed that the government has overestimated the utilisable water resources of the country by up to 88% and India had breached its water security levels way back in 1997-98 by overexploiting the resource.
Published in ‘Current Science’, India’s leading science journal, the study by N K Garg of IIT-Delhi and Q Hassan of Jamia Milia Islamia claimed that the government overestimated water available for use by a whopping 66-88% by double accounting for the resource in their methodology.
The findings could be a wake up call for planners and have a huge impact on India’s estimate of water resources, possibly leading to a recast of plans for regulation and development of power and irrigation schemes.
The authors claimed, on the basis of four years of work, that India had only 668 billion cubic metres (BCM) of water compared to 1,110 BCM claimed by the Central Water Commission — less by 442 BCM. This is alarming considering that even the projected demand (and this is the lower side of projections) of 987 BCM cannot be met even after all the available water is exploited.
In water jargon, development of water resource refers to creating the structures to use different water resources — surface water or ground water. The entire water available in a country, in its rivers and under the ground, obviously cannot be used.
The portion that hydrologists conclude can actually be extracted and put to use is referred to as “utilisable water resource”. Over exploitation in any year implies extracting more water than is naturally recharged in the river basin in that year.
“What the government has done is double accounting of one vital element of the water cycle and therefore ended up with an inflated figure. While the error looks simple, with the ground water data of the country being classified, it took us four years of digging and understanding the method of calculation to figure out this discrepancy,” Garg, from the department of civil engineering, IIT-Delhi, told TOI.
Cutting through the reams of data and calculations mentioned in the paper, Garg explained, “During the lean period, the water in rivers that one sees is actually ground water as there is no rain at the time. But when the CWC calculated total utilisable water, it accounted for the water in the rivers at the time as surface water as well as ground water, leading to the inflated figures.”
It sounds so much a clerical mistake but A K Gosain, also from the civil engineering department of IIT-Delhi and on the PM’s expert committee on climate change, said, “The trouble is all the data on ground water is classified and never released to even scientists. Nobody outside the government has been able to evaluate the statistics. Even when we were doing simulation studies to look at impact of climate change on our rivers, we had to use American data on Indian rivers to validate our results.”
27 Oct 2007
TOI
PS: The original paper can be downloaded here:
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/oct102007/932.pdf (Thanks to Mr. Chetan Pandit for the link)
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Rainwater Harvesting in Bangalore
Posted on October 30, 2007 | Filed Under Uncategorized
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UNDP posters on water
Posted on October 29, 2007 | Filed Under IEC Material
Download the original posters (these are created by UNDP), pdf files of about 300KB each :
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“The Incredible Water Man”
Posted on October 28, 2007 | Filed Under News
Ritesh Arya, an intrepid hydrogeologist, creates a record by digging for water in the world’s highest altitudes
An article from India Today that can be read at:
http://www.hvk.org/articles/1007/27.html
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“Ganges” : Three-part series on the Discovery Channel
Posted on October 28, 2007 | Filed Under Announcements, News
See a Hindu review of this series that started last Wednesday
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/10/24/stories/2007102450382400.htm
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Call for papers
Posted on October 28, 2007 | Filed Under Announcements
International Journal of Water (IJW)
Call For papers
Special Issue on: “Groundwater and Surface Water Interactions”
Guest Editor: Prof. Saeid Eslamian, Princeton University, USA
“The aim of this special issue is to preserve, enhance, and restore
water quality through a comprehensive understanding of the hydrologic
cycle, with particular focus on collaborative engagement between
surface water and groundwater researchers, facilitating an increased
knowledge of surface water and groundwater interaction.”
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WASH Media Awards
Posted on October 26, 2007 | Filed Under Announcements, Awards/RFPs/Competitions
“We would like to inform you that the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) and the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) is now accepting applications for the 2nd WASH Media Awards.
The competition is open to journalists in developing countries who publish or broadcast original investigative reports on issues relating to water supply, sanitation or hygiene (WASH) in their countries. Journalists can submit up to two pieces of work.
Eligible works must be published or broadcast between July 1, 2007 and Apr. 30, 2008. Articles or broadcasts can be submitted in French, English or Spanish. Works not originally published or broadcast in one of these languages must be translated into one of the three competition languages. Deadline for submission of entries is on or before May 15, 2008. “
For more information and entry forms, visit: http://www.wsscc.org/fileadmin/files/pdf/media/Announcement_English.pdf
or the WSSCC or SIWI websites, respectively, at:
www.wsscc.org/en/media/wash-media-awards
http://www.siwi.org/press/washmediaaward.html
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“Earth Bound” - Exhibition at Mumbai and Jaipur
Posted on October 26, 2007 | Filed Under Announcements, News, Uncategorized
“We invite you to an exhibition of black and white photographs celebrating Land, Water and People presented by German Agro Action (GAA- Deutsche Welthungerhilfe) in collaboration with Jackfruit Research and Design ( Bangalore). The travelling show brings to an urban audience for the first time an experience of GAA’s presence in rural India, and its philosophies and accomplishments as an agrarian funding organisation working with Indian NGO partners. The images, augmented by text and graphics, narrate diverse stories of change and development captured through case-studies by photographer Clare Arni in developmental projects in the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Rajasthan. The exhibition traces the problems faced and progress achieved in the broad areas of poverty alleviation and food security through an integrated approach under the ‘Geographically Based Programme India’ supported by the European Commission. “
Venues and Timings:
23rd to 31st October 2007
Chaturdik
Jawahar Kala Kendra
Jawaharlal Nehru Marg, Opposite Jhalana Institutional Area
Moti Dhungri
Jaipur – 302 004
Ph: 0141 2706560
10 am to 6 pm
6th to 15th November 2007
Piramal Art Gallery
Experimental Theatre Building
National Centre for the Performing Arts
NCPA Marg, Nariman Point
Mumbai – 400 021
Ph: 022 2283 3737
11 am to 7 pm
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